Another good week in Colorado for me last week. Nose bleeds and constipation continue to be my only annoying side effects right now. I am learning to deal with them and can’t complain. I had treatment #5 today and all still looks good.

People have been asking me if cancer is convincing me to change aspects of my lifestyle. I am not sure if my answer is correct, but honestly, no.

I haven’t changed my diet. I did have a great friend turn me on to Hungryroot food delivery and I can thank him for me eating healthier over the last two weeks. I really enjoy the service and the fast meal prep (10 minutes!) so I will probably continue to enjoy these healthier meals. But I still enjoy my sugar, wine, cookie dough (yes I like this again), and ice cream. I have no desire to go vegan, gluten free, or anything else like that. I will maintain my status quo on eating mostly healthy and thoroughly enjoying my sweets.

I really haven’t changed my exercise routine either other than I am back to running and workouting out as much as I can. I was able to run 3 days this week and hoping to add an extra run in when possible. I have done some manual labor on the basement bathroom which is working my arms. Working out during chemo is supposed to help with side effects, so I am definitely doing my part there. I ran 7 miles Sunday morning and it felt good. I am still aiming for the Eugene half marathon in April the week after treatment ends.

My outlook on life hasn’t really changed either. I feel this is an obstacle to get through and then I will keep on trucking with my life. Maybe I am slightly disappointed that I haven’t had a big epiphany on where my life should go like some people get with cancer. I am taking that to mean that I already loved most aspects of my life and therefore, I don’t need a big change.

The best thing I have rediscovered is how many incredible friends and family I have. People have been wonderful with support and I cannot thank them enough.

The other thing that has been fun has been getting more involved with the travel agent job. I don’t always have energy to make social plans so I have been spending more time perfecting vacations for others to Disney World, Disneyland, Universal, and cruises! I love it. It is a puzzle to put together my knowledge of Disney and the client’s needs. I even had time to develop out a 35 page document with everything you need to know when you go to Disney (yes…I am an engineer). I guess some good things come out of not having energy for social plans. Plus at the current moment I will be donating over $500 to American Cancer Society as part of the deal I am doing that I will donate 10% of all my commissions between now and end of October and hoping I can bring that number up even more.

Thank you as always for your support.

Also I will just start having the link to my American Cancer Society at the bottom of each post. Thank you to all who have donated already! http://main.acsevents.org/goto/sammader