About 5 hours after completing the second round of chemo, I went to the indoor track. I felt much better than expected, and attribute that to the drug not having had much time to show its effects. I even attempted to do the stair drill which was the workout of the week, which does involves sprinting. The first couple were really fun, as I enjoy running FAST. The third one caused my lungs to hurt afterwards. The fourth caused my lungs and throat to hurt. That pain would be the drug affecting the linings of my lungs, mouth, and throat. It basically affects the entire digestive tract, lungs, skin, hair follicles, anything that has fast dividing epithelial cells as a barrier between the body and the outside world.
Given that I would have been happy with walking around the track for a bit, I’m ecstatic to get away with a bit of exuberance. Now let me explain why running, or any exercise, is of vital importance when you have cancer and are dealing with cancer treatments.
Exercise is what stimulates growth in the body. It builds muscle. It strengthens bone. It spurs the production of more blood cells. It does a lot of other things but what I’ve already listed is in direct opposition to the effects of cancer and its treatment. My cancer has spread to the bones and was damaging them. Weight loss from treatment is causing muscle loss. Radiation and chemo drastically reduce blood cell counts.
If the blood cells don’t recover, treatment is put on hold giving cancer a chance to bounce back. During my treatment yesterday I got talking to another patient who had her treatment delayed by a week due to low blood cell counts. My counts had fully recovered before my second treatment. Dare I say they recovered so well they may have been higher than I’m used to seeing before I had cancer, though I haven’t dug out my old blood tests to be sure.
Another woman was talking about how she has to climb three steps to get into her apartment building, then another five steps to get into her apartment, and after that amount of exertion she lays down on the couch for an hour and a half. Compare that to me complaining about brief lung pain after sprinting across a basketball court then running up the stairs to the balcony track above.
To be fair, I’m much younger than both of these women, and can fairly guess that I started with much more physical conditioning in reserve. This past summer I would go out for three hour explorations in Vermont involving running and walking on roads and running and hiking on abandoned roads and trails in the woods. I found a number of abandoned houses, and more surprisingly, structures that weren’t abandoned more than a mile from any maintained road.
I’d cover about 10 miles on these journeys. I also spent time clearing downed trees and making new trails on our property, as well as cutting, splitting and filling our wood shed with over a cord of firewood. And of course, this was when I was working full time which also involved commuting for 12 hours a week when you include Massachusetts traffic.
Using that as a reference point, I see nothing spectacular about going for a three mile run while on leave from my job. I have ample time to rest and recover when not going to appointments. I spend significant time now trying to learn as much as possible about my disease and what options are available should the cancer adapt to the initial treatments and begin advancing again.
On the other hand, if your references for “cancer patient” are the relatively frail people I see at my chemo treatments, then yes, getting off the couch and doing any activity is an amazing accomplishment. I personally am keenly aware of how cancer has slowed me down and reduced my activity, and how chemotherapy causes even further reductions. Happily, the lesson from my first round of chemo is that by the end of the third week I seem to be back to about where I was before it started, so hopefully the effects won’t accumulate with each round.
And let me stress the importance of being a habitual exerciser before some major health crisis strikes. Many health issues can cause you to become deconditioned, to lose muscle mass, and generally place stressful burdens on the body as it fights the disease and tries to heal. Starting from a point of decent physical condition means you have more in reserve, and can maintain a better quality of life during your illness. It doesn’t have to be running. Anything that gets you active, uses more than 50% of your muscle strength, burns a bunch of calories and gets your heart rate up really high will help. For a symbiotic effect, eat healthier too (always my weak point). Get out there and use your body as much as you safely can!
Besides the direct health benefits already mentioned, running is a great way of coping with the stress and uncertainty of life, particularly when you have a deadly disease. I’ve also built a social life around running, and runners are some of the nicest and most positive people you could ask for. Despite the very low cure rate for advanced prostate cancer, everybody has me focused on that possibility, and given the progress I’m making so far with treatment that’s not as outrageous as it may sound.
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