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| Washed my running gear at the hotel in a big pot! |
Recovery from the radiation treatments has gone pretty well. My skin held up just fine, I didn’t experience any blistering, although my nipple was angry for a while. What I’m still struggling with is the fatigue. I know, I know, the RO told me it could take four to six months to go away. But she also said that me being physically fit makes a big difference and that I’ll probably be back to normal sooner.
Only I’m not. It’s not that the fatigue is debilitating, it’s more that I have no reserves, no stamina the way I’ve always had. When I’m out of gas, that’s it, I don’t get any sort of second burst of energy.
Case in point this past week I traveled to Waco and then Las Vegas for work. We had long days, 12 hours, and the work is important but it’s equally tedious. Think lots of interviewing people at these locations, scoring their responses and then calibrating between the five of us on the trip. Wednesday evening, we were nearly done calibrating. One of my co-workers suggested breaking for dinner and then resuming. I was completely honest when I said look, I’m very nearly done for the day. I guarantee if we stop to eat. I will fall asleep at the table. So we kept going. Normally I would have been able to hang in there, but not last week.
And I think the radiation treatments are also continuing to affect my running, specifically my heart rate. Even with the breath holds to get my lungs and heart out of the way, I’m pretty sure there’s a scatter effect. What I notice is when running, especially if I’m fatigued (rads fatigue not tired from running fatigued), my breathing is fine, my legs are fine, but my heart rate is higher than it should be. I don’t think this is a lack of fitness issue either. I ran 7 miles yesterday morning, and on today’s run my heart rate just wanted to stay in the threshold stage (think 154 and up) and I needed it in the 140s.
I am trying to be patient. I know that things are still healing (my left pec for example pretty much always hurts now and I’m not really doing any upper body work—OT says it’s fried from radiation and it will get better), so hopefully this isn’t my new normal.
1 comment:
Fatigue is my biggest complaint. Most people don't know the difference between being tired and fatigued. For me, RA is more about fatigue than pain. But people--and my rheumatologist it seems-don't seem to get it. I too have a higher heart rate. Sucks.
On the other hand, you seem to be making the most of it! Your vacation photos are great!
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