All is well!

All is good! We are
staying busy, busy. I think that is a
good thing because when I first found out about my cancer, I felt like I had
OCD. All I could think about was my
cancer. Non-stop! I couldn’t even sleep. In fact, night time was the absolute
worst! However, there have been times in
the past week where I have actually gotten busy and “forgotten” for a few
minutes. When I think of it again, I
realize how nice it was to have a quick break!
I am hoping with time, this will happen more and more!
I did speak with Huntsman.
I had a little scare last week because the lymph node above my incision
and behind my right ear got swollen and really tender. I was freaked out because I thought it was
possibly the cancer growing freakishly fast.
However, after a trip to Huntsman and a few e-mails they calmed me down
and said that because the original node had been removed, its closest buddy was
working harder and reacting. Since then,
the node has gone down and is no longer hurting, so things are good. They also told me that my blood work showed
exactly what they were looking for and nothing unexpected. It gives them a baseline to watch my numbers
and hopefully see that they are NOT increasing.
J
The doctors have told me not to change my lifestyle at
all. However, I think the hardest thing
for me has been not doing anything. I feel
like I should be doing something to fight this.
Sorry, but I feel anxiety about it, like I should be fighting like
Hell!!
So, I have been eating even healthier than I was
before. I used to justify sweets all the
time because I exercise so much.
However, I have now cut out a lot of natural sugar from my diet. I am also avoiding artificial sugars completely. For the most part, I try to eat only whole
grains, lots of fruit and vegetables, small amounts of meat, and very few
sweets at all. It is taking some getting
used to, but I haven’t had soda since being diagnosed and have only eaten a
handful of sweets.
I couldn’t resist some cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory
and some cookies at a family gathering.
Also, some of Troy’s students made me some sugar cookies (my weakness)
so I ate one of those! I bought some
dark chocolate covered blueberries and pomegranates, so when I’m really weak, I
eat some of those.
Anyway, compared to the old sweet tooth Alayna, that is a
major accomplishment! I have also been
exercising a lot. I am registered for
the Boise Ironman 70.3 (half the full Ironman distance; 70.3 miles) this June,
so I need to get ready for that.
So, for my F’s I promised, the first is “fitness”. Just to prove that I am healthy, I run 6.5
miles every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 5:30 with some great neighbor
ladies! After I run, I do 25 minutes of
Yoga and then a lot of those days I also ride my bike. (It is set up on a trainer inside my
house). On Mondays and Wednesdays I ride
the bike for 1.5 to 2 hours. On
Saturdays I go for a long run which is usually 12 to 15 miles if I’m not
training for a marathon. It can be up to
20 miles if I am in marathon mode.
I don’t tell you this to brag, just to prove that if
exercise is important, you can find the time and the way. It has never been more important to me, so I
am going to keep it up. I have found for
me if I am always signed up for a race, then it keeps me motivated to
train. That may be a great tip for
you. I have seen every body type and
personality at races. Everyone is
welcome! Don’t feel intimidated or think
you can’t sign up until you are “in shape”, just sign up and then train!!
I also felt like I
would share this little “fabulous” idea that I had. If I do say so myself, it is quite
ingenious! I didn’t feel like I could justify
riding my bike for hours and not do anything else. I need to be productive, so I figured out a
way to multi-task. I bought a hospital
table that wheels under my bike so I can type on my laptop and ride at the same
time. (See cheesy pictures abouve). I work on class prep, grading,
e-mails, etc. while I ride. (Yes, I am
typing this post and riding!) I know it is a bit geeky, and that the biking purists
out there will tell me that my form is being compromised, but I am getting
things done!

The last “F” of the day has to do with “Finance”. In my classes I have always talked about how important
it is to have life insurance when you have people (spouse, children) depending
on you! That goes for the stay-at-home,
non-income earning spouse as equally as it goes for the wage earner! So, now with my own diagnosis, I have
pondered and re-evaluated everything in my life. I DO NOT intend to die until the age of at
least 100, but I have thought about my own life insurance. I am pretty well insured and honestly bought
as much as I could afford. Now, of
course, I wish I had triple the coverage, but I do know that if anything
happened to Troy or I, financially we would be OK. The crazy thing is (and I have taught this)
at this point if I tried to buy insurance, I’m pretty sure I would be
uninsurable! You have to worry about the
insurance before you have reason to! So,
if any of you are out there reading this, and are not insured, now is the time
to look into it. Get as much as you can
afford, then if the worst happens, your family won’t have to suffer financially
as well.
Alright, so now what? Well, I just keep exercising, eating
healthy, living my crazy life, and I go back to Huntsman on April 10th
for a checkup. We felt like the family
needed some fun, so we are heading off to Disneyland and American Idol for
spring break! We are also going to stop
in St. George for a visit and a road bike ride.
I’m EXCITED!!!
I’m pretty sure that only family and friends read this blog,
but if any bad people are reading, I do have an alarm, a dog, and a dog
sitter. So, don’t even think about
trying to break into my house! I’ll blog
when we get back! Thanks for the
prayers! Keep ‘em coming and pray me healthy!