Tuesday May 3rd - Blood work at the lab.

I'm not a pill taker but...

Before August 2010 I really hardly ever took pills. If I had a headache there was a reason so why mask it with a pill, drink more water or spend less time in front of the computer. So I'm not a great pill taker, but I have had some practice of late. These are all the bottles of pills & potions I haven't finished. Anti nausea, blood pressure, chemo, vitamins, anti-viral, anti-biotic, anti-pain, fiber, "magic mouth wash" and of course hand sanitizer - all the time. I still don't like taking pills and if I'm given the option I normally keep the pill 'just in case'.
So anyway, all that said I have good news. I have been riding my bike! Mostly on the trainer but I have been on it about a hour a day 6 days a week. I keep my HR at 85% of max. and I think I can see improvement. Mostly cardio, my resting HR is coming down and I'm able to increase resistance on the trainer. I'm also starting back with some light weights. I went for a 30 minute ride on my mountain bike last Tuesday and really enjoyed it. It was hard and my muscles feel very heavy and useless but hopefully I can change that. I did have to get off my bike on the way back - even on my lowest gear, but the hill on 79th Street kicks up to 13% just before the top and there was no way I could keep going, having got off the bike I could hardly walk up it! But working out again feels great and I almost feel normal again, which has been a long time coming. I'm tired and will continue to be for a few weeks while I get used to regular exercise again but even in a week my baseline has got so much better and running up stairs no longer makes me blackout and while carrying James around during the day I'm now not always looking for the nearest chair to sit on, so something is working.
I had labs drawn today (Tuesday) and wbc is 2.6, hemoglobin 7.6, anc 1.49, platelets 236 and creatinine 1.70. I've been told level will fluctuate a little initially but all the numbers are okay and platelets are doing great but my creatinine is out performing my best guess at the moment! A drop of 0.12 in a week is amazing, I had conceded to it staying at 2 but I'll take 1.7 or anything better I can get. I'm down to one visit a week now and all going well will be once every 2 soon. I'm just hoping that all my numbers get a little better then stabilize. So hopefully before long I'll be out on my road bike hitting some hills!