In July, 2008, I was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia.Had aggressive chemo (3 rounds)over a 6 month period, then 1 year of maintenance drugs which I finished up early last spring. Ran throughout. Got into serious running again last summer and ran a 21:30 5k last October. Will be 64 in January. At this point, I'm thinking that age is taking a worst toll on my running than the cancer ever had! Good luck!
Thanks everyone for all the replies. I thought the anemia and muscular weakness were going to be the biggest issues until I broke my leg on Monday. The surgeon said, and I was glad he mentioned it, the break was nothing related to new tumors, but, rather, just thinning of the bones from the chemo. It's just insane for me to think I've now got bones that can break from a fall in the wrong direction when they used to be hard as rock. Life can change so fast. I guess I will quite literally have to learn to walk again before I think about running. And, by the way, if anyone in your family offers you seroquel to help sleep, run like hell! I would have avoided a lot of pain from that stupid little 50mg pill had not entered my body. Gr.....
Remains to be seen if I make a comeback.....but I had a heart transplant 2 months ago at age 41. I am gradually building up my activity level and the lengths of my walks with hopes of getting back to running, cycling, etc. I was not pretty darned fit before, although at this point in my life not competitive. During this experience I have been encouraged by many stories of heart transplant recipients who have recovered to run again, do triathlons, long distance cycling, and endurance swimming. A previous post mentioned forgetting where you were before, only the post cancer times count from now on, you are truly born again,given a second chance to get different times, maybe not better. I hope to recover well enough to enjoy my 'second life' even if running becomes jogging. I agree about seroquel, it made me actually hallucinate, I couldn't tell if I was sleeping/dreaming or awake! I found remeron to be the one for me. Hang in there, be patient with yourself, and best of health to you.
Badwater seems to attract cancer survivors and people still fighting cancer (Mary Campilongo comes to mind - http://www.sbrunning.org/Stories/Baldy-MaryC.htm). I had a heart attack (at age 55) while running March 12th, 2011 which went undiagnosed for a couple months. I had a triple bypass on May 4th and started running again 8 weeks later. 3 1/2 months later, I'm still trying to pin down where I'm at. I'm getting a little more consistent from week to week now but a lot of it was a case of having a great workout then a couple of bad weeks. I rest more now than before and in general am trying to do the right things rather than push all the time. My first cardiologist was afraid of letting me run so I switched cardiologists. Stay persistent - you have yet to really know your level of fitness. Make sure that you associate with people who will work with you to get you back to whatever the new normal is.
the cancer guy wrote:
Thanks everyone for all the replies. I thought the anemia and muscular weakness were going to be the biggest issues until I broke my leg on Monday. The surgeon said, and I was glad he mentioned it, the break was nothing related to new tumors, but, rather, just thinning of the bones from the chemo.
People never cease to amaze me.
Your drop off in performance was due to the chemo and radiation, not having cancer.
So the key to getting your physical fitness back is to recover from the radiation and chemo. Good luck.
Enigo Montoya wrote:
Remains to be seen if I make a comeback.....but I had a heart transplant 2 months ago at age 41. I am gradually building up my activity level and the lengths of my walks with hopes of getting back to running, cycling, etc. I was not pretty darned fit before, although at this point in my life not competitive. During this experience I have been encouraged by many stories of heart transplant recipients who have recovered to run again, do triathlons, long distance cycling, and endurance swimming. A previous post mentioned forgetting where you were before, only the post cancer times count from now on, you are truly born again,given a second chance to get different times, maybe not better. I hope to recover well enough to enjoy my 'second life' even if running becomes jogging. I agree about seroquel, it made me actually hallucinate, I couldn't tell if I was sleeping/dreaming or awake! I found remeron to be the one for me. Hang in there, be patient with yourself, and best of health to you.
I actually started with Remron. It worked great for a few rounds but actually quit quit working and started making me stay awake. I quickly dropped that in favor of my two hours of sleep a night. That one made me see things! I have stories about that for sure. I suspect anything people start with has that effect.
I wish you all the best getting back into running. If you go to the Runner's World forums, there is a whole section dedicated to runners who have or are recovering from cancer. Actually, one of the guys there has recovered from cancer and run over 300 marathons! His name is Stevie Ray Lopez.
its not cancer but this guy has battled back from a life threatening auto-immune disease to race again. http://www.goasu.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=205157927
So, Cancer Guy, how's the leg healing? Hopefully well, but hey maybe some non-running exercise is better for a while. That way you won't be comparing pre and post cancer running until you have recovered some more from the rad and chemo. Welcome to your new normal.....at least you didn't break both legs. Best of healing to you.
I wanted to wish you the best of luck with this. Former American record holder Steve Scott had testicular cancer FWIW. Frances Koons (Villanova women's stud) had (kidney?) cancer, survived it and is running pretty well again. Just walk for now, or do something lower impact like swim.
My former teammate, Gabe Anderson, had cancer a few yrs ago while she was running for the the University of MN. She found out in the spring, took time off and went through surgery and chemo, was granted a medical hardship 6th yr of eligibility and came back a yr later stronger than ever and finished 2nd in DI NCAA's in the 1500 and now is running professionally for Brooks/Team USA MN and continues to improve each season even with the appearance of more cancer that was also successfully combated.