Damned if I do Damned if I don't

Damned if I do Damned if I don’t, what am I talking about exercise, walking and swimming.   It has been awhile with a lack of energy I hadn’t go out much but since the visit with my Pain Management Doctor she adjusted my meds which gave helped a lot allowing me to increase my overall activity.    Even my sister noticed but like always there was another shoe to drop, just like when I was working the more I did the more swelling of my feet and legs.  When I went to my Oncologist at the beginning of May she was concerned with the swelling of my legs, it isn’t the first time I have had swelling basically my entire body has been swollen since Chemo ended.  My platelet count has been at the minimum or well below, as are my White and Red Blood Cell, heck all my numbers are at the minimum.

 I had my Rhemu appointment last week on Thursday my Uncle Noland who had just as many Doctor appointments at least mine is at one hospital his is at like 3 different hospitals in different cities.  It is always fun driving up and back we have similar interests so time flies on the trip. The sad part is one topic we shouldn’t have in common is medicine me in my 30’s him in his 60’s and we are talking some of the same meds.  It is hilarious when we pull over at check point Charlie Meadows to eat both of us sliding out of the truck slowly moving as our sore and swollen joints creak and we limp right on in.  Yes, my body is a 30 something year old on the exterior but on the interior I am knocking at the 70 to 80 year old range.   That is the price I had to pay in order to see my 30^th birthday in 2008 when I was told you’re not suppose to be 29 with breast cancer not just any kind the most aggressive one that at that time there was few options but a lot with future treatment options Triple Negative, and it was Terminal Stage IV.

As treatments and science develops new and improved treatment, the long term effects of aggressive Stage IV cancer isn’t know.  More and More women and men are living longer with Stage IV then those of the past.   In my case due to a Family Tree that doesn’t branch means that bad gene’s have been passed down and damned if I didn’t basically get every damn one.  Yes people if you are a Local whose family had been at least a 100 years your tree doesn’t branch contrary to what you have been told.

Let’s see Breast Cancer, Sjogren’s, Raynaud’s and for the hell of it lets add Varicose Veins yeah just like Dad and Grandma Humphrey  Sometime this week maybe today  I have to Johnson’s Pharmacy with my prescription to get knee high compression socks.  I will have to decrease what little walking I was doing and try the swimming pool since the more walking I do the more swollen my legs get.  My veins are having circulation issues from the varicose veins and inflammation from the Sjogren’s.

Like my oncologist my Rhemu doctor was concerned as well about the swelling, and order another blood and urine test.  I got the urine test which was basically good, still waiting for the blood test, he likes to call with results and with the holiday this has been a long weekend.   Hopefully he calls and has some plan to deal with this swelling; my entire body is swollen at the moment and is painful and irritating.  On a bright note I lost 20 pounds in 3 weeks without doing anything.

All I want to be able to do is to get back to my weight before cancer when I use to ride 4 miles round trip to work and back to my apartment.  Or better yet when I was a cabin counselor at Camp Seafarer in shape and tan where I spent most of the time up in tall stand telling kids to step up knock the arrow and shot.   Yes I was an archery instructor back in the day, wish I could go back to working camps but this time it would have to be indoors like the Arts and Crafts.