RESUMING NORMAL TRANSMISSION

I guess life will not always be kind, easy and wonderful but we can still make the choice to focus on the good and positive things and give thanks for all we have.

Peter is working hard to shed some kilos gained from a combination of the holiday, my birthday celebrations and then periods of inactivity after 2 operations in 3 weeks. He has taken control of his eating my using an on-line logging program and for once he's concerned about how much sugar he is consuming. Previous attempts of me raising this were met with a surly "I don't eat much sugar" so I just let it go. Now's he's seeing it on the screen daily and he's looking for ways to reduce his consumption. My job just got a whole lot easier. Its also great to see him slowly transition back to exercising after a big whinge that the walking he was initially allowed to do "was doing nothing". Er, reminder time, that walking was rehab, not exercise. Like oranges and apples, 2 different things. 

As for me, I seem to have really found my groove on many levels and I'm feeling pretty amazing. My runs are coming along nicely with an especially crackin session on Sunday where I had great energy levels and my pace was the best it had been for some time. My times are now 5 minutes walking, 30 minutes jogging (or running as on Sunday), then another 5 walking and the rest is jogging or running for a total of 1 hour. This works a treat for me but I'm slowly increasing the time of my first jogging stretch. The other stuff I'm loving is this routine:

Monday: 350 workout + a little extra bike cardio 

Tuesday: 45-50 minute run (with walk intervals)

Wednesday: Leg weights: squats, static lunges and stiff-legged deadlifts, working on increasing my weights

Thursday: same as Tuesday

Friday: Upper body weights (aiming for heavyish sets)

Saturday: rest.

Now that's good and positive and I'm truly grateful for it.

:-) M 

 

NOT EVERYBODY IS SO LUCKY

On the same day that I posted my good news about Peter's successful operation to remove his melanoma, he was pretty down in the dumps when we met to go home after work. He'd heard from his best friend, D that afternoon. D was calling to tell Peter that his cancer had returned. He'd had testicular cancer a few years ago and was thought to be in remission. But his last blood test showed that further tests were necessary and having had them he's now been diagnosed with bowel cancer. He'll be having a section of his bowel removed this week and will then need 6-12 months of chemo. He's the same age as Peter, wife, 3 kids (the oldest now a young adult, the youngest a little older than Mitchell). He runs his own business so for him sick leave doesn't exist.

We're both sad, worried and angry but trying to be optimistic. 

That is all for today.

M 

WHEN THE 'C' WORD TOUCHES YOUR LIFE

Apologies its been a while since I've been able to blog. Its been a bit topsy turvy and hectic in my world but here goes my update which will explain things. 

While we were on holidays a woman approached me to alert me to a mole that was on Peter's ear. She had sat behind us on a bus, caught up with me after we got off, asked me if Peter was my husband (as he had already raced off), told me she was a nurse and she was concerned about the mole on his ear. I reassured her that it was checked regularly and it was ok but as a precaution I urged him to have it checked again when we got home. So during his knee op recovery I took him to see our GP again. 

So lets cut to the chase here. GP sent him to a specialist later that week. A biopsy was taken. By the end of the week the verdict was through: its a melanoma - it needs to come out. Next specialist seen within a week and I'm expecting a surgery the week after. But no, the op is scheduled for the NEXT DAY. Holy crap!! I'm under the pump at work with a major project deadline looming AND an office move that I need to pack for and I'm going to be away for a day and half as a I do the taxi to/from the hospital and then stay with Peter for the next 24 hours due to him having had an an anaesthetic.

I work miracles to schedule everything in to the best of my ability and sure enough the next day at 6pm I'm taking Peter home from his day surgery op. But this is a nasty op (unlike his knee which was almost a non-event) and he has a bad weekend and I don't allow him to go back to work on Monday. In the meantime we have moved offices at work and I have a room full of boxes to unpack and all things work related have to go on hold as I take the golden opportunity to have a much needed clean out and tidy up.

I'm glad to say that this story has a happy ending. A week after the op he has a follow up appointment to remove stitches and he is given the all clear. They got all of the cancer and no further tests or treatment are required. Look it was only a week of living in doubt and deep down I thought it would all be ok as the melanoma was small but neither of was counting our chickens til the surgeon confirmed that. Geez it was great to have the weight lifted from our shoulders!

Now you can see why planning for my new blog took a bit of a back seat. On the work front my new office is looking good with only a mammoth pile of filing to tackle. Having a big clean out has been like doing a major detox. Its hard work along the way but geez you feel so much better at the end of it.

But the most important thing is that the op was successful and we can go back to living normal lives again and for that I am truly grateful.

:-) M

  

CHAMPAGNE FOR BREAKFAST AND COOKING FROM SCRATCH

On Sunday afternoon, armed with my trusty copy of  'WordPress for Dummies' I set up my new blog. Its not ready to go live yet but its taking shape. Getting my head around so many new things on WordPress was a slow and laborious process but I will persevere as my goal is to be ready to launch next weekend.

I sacrificed Sunday's hour of power for a breakfast catch up with a dear friend. She has a one year old and the days of us meeting for breakfast before work are a nigh on impossibility for her. So we've shifted our catch ups to a Sunday when everybody is far more relaxed and we have time for a leisurely chat. She missed my 50th birthday but we made up for that with a glass of champagne with our eggs and bacon. How spoilt was I??  Oh and BTW, green eggs and ham (scrambled eggs with a drizzle of pesto served with Kanmantoo bacon) is to die for. If you're ever in the Adelaide Hills give Tranquilo Restaurant a go.

Other than that the weekend was pretty stock standard routine: ice skating, grocery shopping, spending a couple of birthday vouchers, cleaning and making nice dinners. Lately I've become more interested in cooking from scratch so when Peter asked for cordon bleu for dinner he thought he'd get the usual bought chicken cordon bleus that we've had before. But no!! I bought veal cutlets and made them from scratch. I even made a small one for myself thinking that if it was too much I'd only have half. Well, pffft, it was so delicious I ate the whole friggin thing. 

Ok time for me to sign out for today. Talk again soon.

xx m  

 

 

 

THE PAIN BEFORE THE PLEASURE

Wow things got busy after I last blogged. Urgent meetings scheduled for lunch time, back to back meetings, little time to stop and smell the roses as is the often usual grind of office life. I have however been a bit spoilt this week with Peter home recovering from his knee surgery. I haven't cooked a dinner from scratch thanks to being well organised on the weekend and Peter trying his hand at making a slow cooker chicken curry.

This has been the last week of 5.30am starts and next week I'm back to 5am. Aaaargh!!! Its been SO hard getting up early on these cold mornings after that nice long holiday break. Every morning I seriously consider giving it all up until I finish my workout, feel great and then remember there is always pain before the pleasure. I haven't achieved anything earth shattering in my workouts however yesterday I changed my 300 session and pulled up sore again this morning :-) Feeling pretty good about things in general, today I managed a decent 39 minute walk/jog with only 2 x 5 minute walk intervals. I would have made it 40 minutes but the rain had come in quite heavily and I was close to home so it was a good time to end it. 

Exercise this week has been: 

Monday - 300 workout + spin bike hill climbs

Tuesday - 35 minute walk/jog

Wednesday - mixed cardio on rower and spin bike

Thursday - 300 workout (different to Monday) + spin bike sprints

Friday - 39 minute walk/jog (with longer jog intervals).

My goal for this weekend is to get onto Wordpress and have a play trying to set up my new blog. Wish me luck as I am a somewhat challenged IT user and I found Wordpress rather daunting last time I played with it. However I will arm myself with the '... for Dummies' manual so all should be good.

What will you be doing this weekend?

M