I have been much busier with my pet service! It is a very fun job, but I do get so tired.

I am also doing the summer “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle” challenge and I have lost 10.8% body fat! I am gaining lean muscle which is great, so I am on my way to getting fit. My goal was to lose the weight I had gained with surgery, and to regain the strength I lost as well with weight training. I have increased my ability to lift more weight this week, so I am more than pleased.

In my pet service, I walk several dogs a day, and I am putting in a lot of walking. With the summer challenge, they included another challenge-within-the-challenge to do One Million Steps in 98 Days. I get a lot of those steps in my dog walking, so it helps. In order to meet that challenge, you need to do at least 10,204 steps a day to complete the challenge in 98 days. Today I am over 22,000 steps. There are a few severely competitive people that have already met that one million goal, and we still have several weeks left. Today, on the leadership board, I am number 17 on the list of 130 people in the challenge. That is actually really good.

I have been working hard at getting well and stronger with this challenge and the SurviveOars rowing group. I missed the last three weeks because of my work and then this last weekend, the whole group went to a competitive race in Long Beach. I am in the group to get fit, not race. I probably never will do the races because of my business, and it is expensive with the cost of travel and lodging. If I am going to spend money on Travel, I want a vacation with my husband. [Amen. -pw]

As far as my health has been, I am still healing from last year’s surgery and radiation and recovery from chemotherapy. It takes a long time, but with my physical activities, I think I am experiencing less and less severe fatigue that I was having. I still get fatigued, but not as often as before. I have been dizzy a lot, and actually have been terribly accident prone. I have had a couple of episodes with my car, and I fell one day and even cut myself badly while preparing food. I talked about it with the nurse yesterday when I went in to have my Medi-port flushed, and she didn’t even ask my permission, but set up an appointment with the doctor for the next morning. I have been having headaches that have not been relieved with my migraine medication or regular pain medication.

I saw the doctor (oncologist) this morning, and I told her my symptoms and told her my history of migraines and it could possibly be sinus problems. She did a simple eye test and other neurological tests and determined that I had some visual changes that were a concern. She wanted me to have an MRI, but I reminded her that I still have the expander and haven’t had my reconstructive surgery yet. She scheduled me for a CT of the brain instead, scheduled for next Monday. This is very inconvenient, and I am sure it is going to be negative. I take a lot of medications, and I think the symptoms are side effects; but that is the mind of the Oncologist. They think of the worst-case scenario. I am going to take a list of all of my medications to a Pharmacist and ask their professional opinion. I want to be past all of this!!!