Recovery

Hi everyone! Bet you thought I forgot about the blog, eh? Well… I didn’t! And yesterday was the one-month mark from the day of my bone marrow surgery. That blows my mind. How time flies…

I have received a lot of questions asking how recovery is going. Thanks so much for your curiosity. To be honest, recovery has actually been a lot different than I originally expected.

So what did I originally expect? I’m not totally sure. The oncologist I worked with over the past five months warned me that the procedure would be fairly painful. I believe his exact reference was that I would feel like I got “kicked in the back by a horse” for a few weeks. I am happy to report that throughout this process, I never felt once like I got anywhere near a horse.

Don’t get me wrong… I wasn’t doing cartwheels right out of the gate, but the human body is pretty intuitive. My body basically refused to do anything that would have caused me more pain. The mobility and motion of my hips was extremely limited, but it was not too painful. I didn’t even need major drugs. After two days of over-the-counter Tylenol, I was off pain killers completely.

Some of the things I have experienced that I had NOT anticipated include:

Hunger. I have had the appetite of an ogre. For the first week and a half, I could seriously give a running back for the Kansas City Chiefs a run for his money. My eating habits have basically gone back to normal (aside from the holiday gorge), but I was on a roll there for a bit. I wasn’t even mad, I was impressed (Anchorman? Anyone?).

Scars. Or lack there of. With all the prep, all the build-up, all the decision making, I was expecting to have some sort of physical trace of my procedure. Now I can barely see the puncture wounds. They look like little dots, or freckles on my skin. I fear that one day, I will feel like it never happened. As odd as this sounds, while I have been forever changed as a person, it would be nice to have a bit of a battle wound to keep with me for the rest of my life.

Pain. After the first week, all surgery pain was gone. I was able to move around fairly easily. I could lift things, bend, walk and generally move like nothing ever happened with the exception of a small twinge of pain here and there. However, when I started to run or bike, I would feel muscle pain in my back and bone pain in my tailbone. Now that we’re at the one-month mark, I have noticed that this pain has started to fade.

Exhaustion. For anyone just tuning in, you may or may not know that I have become fairly athletic over the past couple of years. My body has learned to crave adrenaline, cardiovascular exercise and the ability to sweat out whatever toxins are in my blood (stress, alcohol, anger, burritos, excess energy… whatever.) Prior to my surgery, I was running up to 13 miles. I felt strong and was continuing to feel better about running. For anyone who knows me and my love/hate relationship with running, you know that is a big deal. Since my surgery, I now reach a maximum level of exhaustion within the first 10 minutes of any workout. My mind is sharp. I want desperately to push myself in the way that I would have pushed myself two months ago. But the moment I do, I get light-headed, a little nauseous and my muscles reach what feels like a lactate threshold of exhaustion. I spoke with Irma today, my Be The Match contact, and apparently it takes 4-6 weeks for my bone marrow to regenerate. I’d imagine that without those blood cells, the oxygen would have a hard time getting to all of my organs and muscles under the stress of exercise. We are checking my blood levels after the holidays if these symptoms continue. While all of that makes sense scientifically, this has definitely been one of the more frustrating side effects of the surgery

This list of experiences may sound complain-y and negative. It’s not. It’s just information sharing because I want to be sure you have all the information I have should you choose to join the registry. Believe me when I say that I am fully aware that in the scheme of life, this is a blip. While it is extremely frustrating not being able to physically keep up with where I am mentally, it has been beyond worth every moment. I am continually reminded of how fragile life is and how important it is to help others if and when you can. My friends, whom I’ve known since I was four years old, lost their mom on Monday to pancreatic cancer. She was 57-years-old and, aside from my grandma, she was the first person I have ever known first-hand to lose their battle with cancer. The shock and sadness of this loss simply validates my choice to donate bone marrow, solidifies my decision to donate my time and future efforts to expand the registry, and re-energizes my strength and motivation to continue to be involved with Team in Training to raise funds for cancer research.

I encourage you to get involved. Whether you raise your own funds, donate to help support and be a part of someone else’s efforts, and/or join the bone marrow registry yourself, I ask from the bottom of my heart for you to find a way to get involved.

Happy Holidays to you and your families. Give them an extra squeeze this year and say an extra prayer of thanks for everything you have.

xoxo