Week 9 - Let's talk about exercise

What a glorious day it was… After last week’s cold snap (we are going into winter here), this morning was like Spring. At 8 am the barbets were calling for all they were worth – I heard at least 3 males calling for the next hour. The temperature today went up to 23°C, making one feel pleased to be alive.

I have just returned from taking my two hooligan dogs for a walk. They get so excited, and they pull like huskies, so I get my upper arms and shoulders well exercised, apart from the actual walking. We have a standard route along the flood plain next to the river. Well, it’s not really a river, more like a stream with a small trickle of water, but it can flood quite respectably if the rain falls in the right place. Our route takes about 20 mins and gets the air into my lungs, and my blood moving.

I wanted to talk about exercise, and also get comments from others who are on interferon. When I started this voluntary torture program I read all the descriptions of the side effects. Apart from the very fuzzy “flu-like symptoms”, the highest numbers of problems reported were for fever, myalgia and fatigue. I only had a fever after the very first injection, so that has not been a problem for me. Myalgia - non-specific aches and pains - are another matter entirely, as I’m sure everyone is aware. The day following my injection I feel low, with aches and pains all over. I have learnt not to try to do too much, as I then run into serious fatigue and just feel worse.

But a certain amount of exercise seems to be good for me. I have never been a serious athlete, more like an itinerant amateur. About 20 years back I was living in Cape Town, and started walking on the mountain, and doing a little simple climbing. Then I started going to a gym, and I have done this irregularly ever since. At best I aimed at doing a gym circuit 3 times a week. I have found even this small regular exercise makes a world of difference. It has improved my general health, and reduced stress. Not sure if it has made much difference to my weight, as exercise improves my appetite!

Before I started on the interferon programme I discussed exercise with my oncologist. He was rather offhand… “Most people have great difficulty with any but the simplest exercise. Feel free to do what you can, but you will find your exercise extremely limited.” Well, it was a bit difficult at the start. Initially I did suffer from fatigue. I could not do the same amount of exercise as before. But I have been working on the principle that a certain amount of regular exercise will be beneficial, and so far it seems to be working. My routine now is to try to get to the gym about twice a week. I manage about 25-30 mins, including a warm-up walk once or twice around the building. I bought a heart rate monitor just for fun, and that is useful to check that I am working in the right range. I also try to take my dogs for a walk, and manage this on most days that I don’t get to the gym.

One principle that I have adopted is to recognize that I am not actually ill, it’s just the interferon! (Thanks to Holly for this insight) So, within reason, I should get up, get out, exercise my muscles and heart. And I have found that generally it works. If I wake up with muscles full of aches and pains in the morning, I have a choice: Stay in bed, take painkillers, feel sorry for myself … Or alternatively I can get up, move around, and get some exercise. As long as I don’t overdo it, the feel-good endorphins kick in and greatly improve the day.

There are days when I just don’t feel up to this, and I goof off to a large extent. But even on the worst days, I get to a point where I feel that getting up and moving around will be preferable to lying around, and generally this works out. Now I must mention that my stamina is not nearly as good as it was. I can do chores around the house, or work in the workshop, or clean the pool, but suddenly I get to a point where I feel I have done enough… I run out of energy, and pushing on leads to feelings of exhaustion. So I have to pace myself, and as long as I get this right, I think I am doing the right thing.

One of my interests is teaching. Standing up in front of a class can take quite a lot of energy. I find I can cope for an hour or so, but then quite suddenly the fatigue sets in, and I need to stop. I have been considering taking on some more training courses, but I’m wary of a situation where I would have to handle 4-5 hours – I don’t think I would be able to do this at present.

So what’s the bottom line on all this? I think there are two principles:

1. I don’t have to treat myself with kid gloves. I can do a certain amount of exercise, within reason.
2. I am convinced that getting regular exercise improves the way I feel generally, and keeps me more healthy.

I wonder if there is anyone out there reading what passes for my wisdom? Out of every 100 readers, perhaps only one or two will write in with comments. If you have any comments on this blog I would love to hear from you. You can find my email address in my user profile.