Sunday, October 12, 2008

Running with cancer

Despite the prohibition against 'strenous' exercise post-surgery, I decided to try to run today. I had been doing so well up to just before the surgery and I didn't want to lose my fitness. Walking just isn't doing it for me. The biggest problem is keeping my chest still. I put the binder over my running bra but still lots of movement. I actually heard something sloshing. So I ran holding my chest with one arm. It was hard and I looked stupid. I only went 2.2 miles with lots of stops and my heart rate went way higher than usual. This surgery must do something beyond just the cutting. The wound looks horrible-all purple and yellow and smells very funky like of all things, selenium. However it doesn't look infected.
Martha stopped by with the cancer nutrition book written by a former neighbor who had cancer 3 times. Lots of vegetables, little fat, dairy and meat and lots of soy unless you have an estrogen positive tumor. Almost everything I read discusses the risk factors for estrogen positive cancer but doesn't provide many clues for the estrogen negative type other than the genetic cancers (BRA1,2)which I probably don't have. There is this protein in many tumors, SPARC, that is needed for the tumors to spread and there is a clinic trial for metastatic cancer patients to try it.
There has been a huge push recently as the technology has just made it possible to see what proteins a given tumor expresses and then target its expression. Of course finding a selective inhibitor is one obstacle especially one that can be delivered to the tumor site. Since breast cancer is disproportionately funded, alot of effort is centered around it.
The weather has been nice and I am able to sit on my patio surrounded by my flowers (excepting the petunias that have succombed to some strange disease specific to them). Brenda stopped by yesterday. Her grandson should be born tomorrow. Steve and I took Oliver to the park. He enjoyed the swings.

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