Health is Happiness...

When going through chemo treatments, or getting through most
medical difficulties, it's so important to stay healthy. And this includes
your mental, emotional, and spiritual health along with your physical
health. In most cases, losing out on one will hurt the others.

My emotional health dropped this week, and so did my weight. I lost
close to ten pounds in about a seven days (according to my bathroom
scale - we'll have a more official count this week at the Cancer Center).
This is not good when the energy in my body is fighting cancer, chemo
drug side effects, etc. I need to have the extra pounds to keep going.

Fortunately I've figured out a few things and am back on a better diet,
eating regular meals and even snacking in between. I'd like to thank
those close friends (you know who you are) who helped keep my
spirits up and encouraged me to focus on loving myself.

I'm increasingly amazed at how caring people have been to me. There
is a love that people are able to give that goes beyond something I can
properly describe. It's genuine. It's selfless. It is unconditional. I want
to continue surrounding myself with people capable of this love and plan
on giving as much of this love from myself to others. It will be so
wonderful to offer and receive this type of love outside of the context
of cancer. It makes me very excited about life.

New Years Eve was a lot of fun. I went to a friend's house, had a potluck
dinner, and danced for hours. I wasn't sure if I would be able to dance,
but it got easier and easier as the hours passed.

Chemo was on Wednesday this week and went very well. I could really
feel the chemo inside of me (it kind of swims around), but it didn't knock
me out, so the week has been good overall.

I was able to see many friends from the past this week, all of whom
worked at Santa Barbara Studios with me. I was having so much fun,
though, I forgot to take pictures of some of them to document the
visit. I guess that's a good thing. I can't wait to see them again.

On Saturday, a wonderful woman named Cheri Clampett (as most of
you know her -- she's now Cheri Borda, I believe, now that she's married)
came over and showed me a few gentle yoga moves that would help
my feet, legs, and spine. I'm going to try to use yoga to help regain some
of my strength during this period. Cheri teaches a course at the Cancer
Center, so I'll start there this Friday.

I'll admit that I'm particularly anxious to get my life going again. In many
ways, it's improved greatly over the past few months. I've had a lot more
fun with friends and have had a chance to re-examine most things in my
life. But I'm finding myself wanting to run again (I dreamt I could last night).
I'm wanting to be able to travel again (short trips will have to do for now).

I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready. But I'll have to be patient and keep healthy,
so I will.

Keep me in your prayers during these last four weeks of chemo because
it's so important that I finish the treatments as strongly as I started them.

Thank you for all of the love. Have a wonderful week.

m