It has now been 100 days since my last chemo infusion on October 1, 2024. That seems like a good excuse for an update.
I've eluded to this in previous entries, but I'm astounded at how long recovery from chemo takes. Over three months from my last infusion and I'm still weak, feeble, and my balance is terrible. I've only just recently stopped using my cane around the house for stability, but I still get around like an old man and make frequent use of countertops and door jams to maintain stability.
I just turned 62 but I feel much more like 72+ these days. Seriously.
My hair is taking an incredibly long time to grow back. I think I mentioned this in the previous post but my glacially slow hair regrowth has turned into a gauge for my healing in general. I've been very frustrated that I'm not getting better any faster than this, and my wife reminds me that this is a visual indicator of how long it's taking my body to recover from the chemo. That has helped me be more patient, at least to an extent.
Somewhere in the middle of my chemotherapy, at the end of some of those rounds, I felt well enough to go for short hikes now and then. I expected that to happen during the last week of round five and six, but the accumulation of Doxytocin in my system had built up enough that I never saw "better" days during those rounds. Little did I expect, though, that I had so much in me it would take many more months to recover. It will be interesting (in a somewhat perverse way) to find how long it will actually take before I feel like my old self again. At times I wonder if I will ever feel like my old self again.
In better news, I started physical therapy, and I've been working on some things that definitely seem to be making a difference in terms of strength and balance. In addition, just in the past week or so, I've started to do a few upper body exercises on the Total Gym that I bought about a year ago. (At the time I bought it, I thought I was really run down and out of shape, and it was winter. I didn't realize cancer was spreading through my body and making me feel that way.)
My physical therapy exercises are focused on hip and balance issues right now. All lower body work. My upper body was always the stronger half of me but I still want go get back some of what I lost through last year's ordeal. That's the Total Gym's job right now. I'm also happy to report that, even though I'm only doing about a dozen repetitions of a handful of exercises, it's not wiping me out. The smallest amount of exercise was wiping me out from February 2024 onward. It's nice to feel that I'm finally at least well enough to handle some minor exercises. It's been a while!
One last thing. I'm still on my anti-testosterone hormone drugs. I will likely remain on those drugs. I really have to wonder how big a role those are playing in my overall lack of strength and stamina. They've got to be playing some role!
