I"m
almost two years out from my last chemo treatment. I'm well past my
2-year mark on my last Oxalipalantin treatment. And yet, I think I may
still have latent issues from that drug.
Last night, my trainer and I worked out outdoors. She's been waiting for
this time, and now that I'm not actively training for the 5k, she's able to
work hard-core on my legs (oh goody). Lots of squats, lots of leg
presses, etc. Some of these are difficult at best to do while we are in a
fairly crowded gym. Trying to do lunges and squats while watching to make
sure I don't get run over or run into a piece of equipment is difficult.
So, outside we went.
The past couple of workouts have been harder, and I think it's in part due to
the fact that she's working legs - larger muscle group = higher level of
difficulty. Great - I need all the help I can get. I haven't been
eating as well as I should (quite honestly, I'm struggling with this because I
just don't have the information I need, but that's another posting...), and we
both agree that this isn't helping the fact that I get 10 minutes into a
workout and start to flounder. My body needs the fuel to do the hard work
I'm asking of it, and (like a car) if there's no fuel, there's no
go.
Yesterday, I ate lunch around 11:30, then had a snack (apple and cheese stick)
around 1:30, then a protein shake around 3:30. That should have been
sufficient (I think) to fuel my body for yesterday's workout. Nope - 10
minutes into this outdoors workout, I was struggling SO MUCH. I had
trouble breathing, was light-headed, and could barely make it through. My
trainer thought it was due to not eating.
I have another theory. (Please don't laugh.) I think that my body
was reacting to the cool (cold to me) air I was breathing in. Arizona has
had a cold spell come through. Remember that less than a week ago, we
were dealing with record heat - 90s and above. This week, we are topping
out at 70 or 72, and that's with peak sunlight. By the time we worked out
last night, the air was probably 60 or 65. While I understand that this
might not be extreme for other folks, my lungs were in full revolt. I
think it was a combination of the hard workout (which really wasn't all that
hard, in retrospect) and the cold air in my lungs.
Thoughts?
Part of this was confirmed for me this morning when I left the house with the
kids. I walked outdoors and took a breath, my lungs seized up and caught
me off guard. I felt like my chest constricted and it took a minute to
get back to normal. If a single breath can have that effect, what will a
good workout do to me, when it's outdoors?
Am I making up excuses? I hope not. I really do think that the
chemo I was on had a profound effect on my body's ability to handle cold.
Combine that with the fact that my blood has thinned out as a result of living
in the desert, and I think those were a potent combination last night. My
entire body gets chilled very quickly now. I mean, it's 70 degrees
outside, and I'm in a tee shirt, sweatshirt, jeans, socks, shoes, and have the
heat on. This wasn't the case prior to chemo - remember, I lived most of
my life in upstate NY, where we take pride in being able to weather the winter
cold in February without a jacket. We also lived in MN for four
years, where I'm pretty sure icicles have to go inside to warm up in the
winter. I shouldn't be this sensitive to the cold weather. And yet,
I find myself counting the days until I know the heat comes back.
I'll be interested to see if any other survivors have had similar issues.
This is something that I'm very interested in - the Oxy drug is still fairly
new, and while the doctors tend to blow off my suppositions about the side
effects (especially this late in the game), I tend to think that maybe, I'm
experiencing those small side effects that fall under "others as
noted."
Comments:
Depending
on what you had for lunch (and breakfast), it sounds like you probably ate
enough before you trained. But if you had no breakfast and a super-light lunch,
then you likely didn't eat enough.
You'll also lose a lot of training power if you're dehydrated. Even very slight
dehydration causes pretty significant loss in performance.
Also, for me and exercise: if I am going to work out hard, I need a fairly
significant warm-up. If I don't foam roll, active stretch, warm up for 10-15
minutes, I'm wiped pretty quickly. Also, for me, unless there's a really
gradual build-up, I'm quick out of the gate, then I'm exhausted in 10 minutes
and want to quit, then in another 5-10 minutes, I find my groove.
As far as the cold ... I am frozen at anything below 80 ;) which has nothing to
do with chemo. I've always been on the cold side, and since I moved here, it's
gotten worse because I've completely adapted to hot. So it might be
chemo-related for you, but it might just be that you've adapted to the desert
summer.
Hopefully there's something useful for you in there somewhere...
November
11, 2010 at 10:57 AM
No
doubt, weather changes affect our health. It turned cold here at the beginning
of the week and my asthma/allergies flared up.
From what I heard, 'fuel' for athletes is quite a science. Can't help you,
there but I'm sure others will chime in.
November
12, 2010 at 10:09 PM
Hey
Michelle,
If you ever want to talk about specific nutrients for addressing the long term
side effects of Oxaliplatin let me know. I would love to help get your body
back on track...no charge of course!
December
20, 2010 at 11:13 AM
