New Beginnings-August 1

Hey, Y’all, I’m Pam. I am many things: a wife, mom, grandma, woman of faith, slightly overweight runner, and a cancer survivor.

This is my first post on my new blog! Some of you may have visited me at my old blog-Just Another Stupid Marathon. I'm not altogether sure why, but I have been feeling the need to start over with this blogging thing, and I felt like a whole new blog might be in order!

I have been a runner and marathoner for many years, but since last October, I haven't done a lot of running. Instead, I have been using all of my energy-battling breast cancer. I have been through chemo, a modified radical mastectomy, and 33 radiation treatments. Hopefully, I will have reconstruction surgery at the beginning of the new year-assuming I get some things straightened out with my insurance company.

When I received my cancer diagnosis, I was determined to be one of those women we have all heard about or even known who just went on with their normal activities while going through treatments, but unfortunately, that was not the case. I experienced a lot of the usual side effects from chemo-nausea, digestive issues, fatigue, hair loss, etc. I also experienced extremely low white blood counts for the duration. I had to have injections from two to four times per week to temporarily raise my numbers so that I could get my treatments as scheduled. The low blood counts made me highly susceptible to any and all infections and illnesses, and I was pretty much confined to my house the entire time, other than going to the cancer center.

Chemo Day

I did venture out for a walk as often as I was able, with a bit of very slow jogging thrown in, but that was an infrequent occurrence over the many months of treatments.

Run/Walk Selfie!

Me and my sweet hubby!

Surgery Day

                                                     

Radiation

Last day of radiation! Gonna miss these crazy, wonderful people!

Now that I am officially DONE with my cancer treatments, other than the hormone therapy that I will continue for the next ten years, and some follow-up doctor's visits, I am ready to become a runner again! Of course, I will be starting off with a lot of walking/jogging and work my way slowly into running. I can't tell you how happy and simultaneously nervous I am about lacing up my old running shoes again! I no longer feel like the experienced runner that I once was, but instead, like a beginning jogger.

Yes, I'm starting over on a brand new adventure back into the world of fitness! Maybe that's the reason I feel the need for a new blog?? A new beginning with both my running and my blogging!

I will still be blogging about some of my experiences with breast cancer in hopes that I might be able to help someone else who has just experienced a life changing cancer diagnosis. I will also be talking about my efforts to lose the excess pounds I am carrying (yes-I'm one of those people who GAINED weight during cancer treatments!), as well as my efforts to get back the energy and endurance that I lost over the past few months. I'm hoping to talk a LOT about running in the very near future as I make the transition from cancer patient to cancer SURVIVOR!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you will stop by often to check out my progress!