3.30.13

Dammit.

Over the last two months or so I've noticed that my running and cardio workouts have been a helluva lot more difficult to push thru and complete, particularly with the same pace and/or intensity that I had been doing. I thought some of it might just have been the winter weather and all getting to me, or simply that I was slacking off and needed to step it up a bit again. I found out the culprit this week. Fortunately it is not the cancer itself that was/is causing it but it is a result of my current treatment regimen. Basically, and without getting too technical, my red cell counts have decreased markedly since late January, which correlates exactly with when I started this current regimen (irinotecan added to cetuximab.) Normal levels of two relevant indicators (trust me on the numbers) are between 14.0-18.0 for one, 40-52 for the other; throughout my treatment my counts have been well within those ranges; as recently as 1/23/13 (measured just before beginning this current regimen) they were 14.6 and 44 respectively. As of this past Wednesday they were 11.8 and 33.7 respectively. It is similar to anemia, in fact it is sometimes called chemo-induced anemia. The reason it has affected my running and cardio endurance is that it causes less oxygen to be available to cells within the body, which reduces efficiency aerobically. I'm not sure what, if anything, I can do to improve this. I eat a healthy and well-rounded diet, I take numerous supplements (dietary and energy), etc... And the red cell counts are not low enough where they require any transfusions or that they affect my treatment. Nor does it affect my daily activity and such; it's not like I'm bed-ridden or can't get out of my way or those sorts of things- overall my energy is ok. And working out my lifts are still good but again it is the cardio work, and my morning runs, which are suffering. It makes me feel like a quitter, like I'm giving in. And that is very, very frustrating.

I realize that effectively treating the cancer, keeping it stable/at bay, is the most important thing. My oncologist wants to get as much benefit out of this current regimen as we can while it still has some effect, which makes sense. Hopefully if/when we need to make a change that change will have less impact upon my red counts, that they will increase and my aerobic endurance will follow suit. I'm not complaining; for being close to two years in and to have this have been (so far) the worst effect, well, that's not bad, considering... But it is frustrating to not be able to accomplish what I previously had been able to. Perhaps I need to motivate myself harder/work harder to push on thru.

Happy Easter!