Long Time No Chat

It has been awhile since I have written anything on my blog, as there has not been any major news.  I continue to heal from my surgery.  I am not having any problems swallowing and there have been no leaks where my stomach now connects to my esophagus in my neck.

However, I am finding the recovery challenging.  With all these internal changes, I am trying to adjust to a short esophagus and small stomach.  I am not able to eat or drink very much.  I constantly have acid reflux and nausea.  I am still trying to figure out what to eat.  I am very low on energy.  I have gone back to the gastroenterologist.  I also visited a natural doctor and dietician.   We are still trying to find the right food that is both nutritious and reasonably good tasting.  I have not been able to eat the high calorie foods as they cause diarrhea. I am losing some weight, which makes me concerned.

I am still walking most days, even though I don’t have much energy.  I usually enjoy walking 3-4 miles a day.  I walk from our Penderbrook townhouse to our new house that is being built.  I hope eventually to get back to running, but it will be awhile.  I am reminded of where I was before the cancer diagnosis, as described below.

Last year on November 2, 2013, I felt so good about my marathon training.  I had run my 20-mile workout for the day and felt good about the upcoming race on November 16, 2013.  I had trained hard.  Troy, Steve, Stacey had also all trained hard.  We were all ready and excited for the race that we had worked so hard for.  Unfortunately when I got the cancer diagnosis on November 11, I was not able to run the marathon: however,  I was able to run the last 8 miles with them.

But as I reflect back on my life now, the marathon race preparation was preparing me to be able to handle what would be the next year of my life.  It took a lot of hard work and determination to prepare for the race and now I am able to have this same determination as I recover from my esophagus surgery.