Day 212: Blood Work, Chemo and A Hard Spartan Workout
While vacations are nice, it felt amazing to sleep in our own bed. I was able to get just shy of 7 hours of sleep after not really sleeping consistently over the weekend.
I had an early appointment to get blood drawn to see if the levels that our neuro-oncologist was concerned about had come back up.
Luckily I had a great phlebotomist so I barely felt a pinch when he drew the blood. I can’t say that about every time I have had blood drawn or had IVs set up for contrasts.
After getting the blood drawn I headed into my office for a busy day of meetings while I waited to hear back from our neuro-oncologist’s nurse which was scheduled for mid-day.
Though I was in back-to-back meetings throughout the day I was nervous awaiting the results.
I finally heard back from our neuro-oncologist’s office mid-day with the green light to start chemo tonight. Apparently my blood levels had come back within the range they wanted me to be within.
On my way home from work I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up the anti-nausea medication that they had prescribed last week.
The instructions from our neuro-oncologist is to take the anti-nausea medication one hour after eating dinner followed by taking the chemo medication one hour after taking the anti-nausea medication.
Right after taking the chemo medication I’m supposed to go to sleep.
I’m supposed to wash my hands immediately prior to and after taking the chemo medication.
Once I got back home I headed over to the gym to get in today’s Spartan WOD. I wasn’t able to workout this morning due to the blood work. I’m also not sure what tomorrow morning will hold when I wake up.
Today’s Spartan WOD was:
Warm-up
- Jump Rope – 3 minutes
- 30 Double Leg Butt Kicks
Main set
- 1 set: 3 min, non-stop, Forward, Reverse, and Lateral Skipping
- 1 set: 3 min, non-stop, 15 yd Forward and Reverse Bear Crawl.
- 1 set: 3 min Knees to Wall Squat Practice.
- 2 sets: Vertical Leap, 3 reps. 20s rest in Plank position
- 2 sets: Max Reps Diamond Pushups + Rear Foot Elevated Squat, 10 reps per side, + Renegade Row, 6 reps per side.
- 2 sets: Body Rows, 10 reps + 20 second Hollow Holds.
- 1 set: 300’ Walking Lunge.
- 30 mins: Zone 1 Run.
Cool down
It was the first time performing several of these exercises for me. By the end of the first set I was drenched in sweat and could barely make it through the rest of the workout.
The Spartan WOD provided an opportunity to swap out one arm push-ups for the diamond push-ups which I did since I don’t think I have the strength yet for one arm push-ups. I was able to get 10 reps and 6 reps during each of the sets for the diamond push-ups.
Since there wasn’t a straight bar to perform the body rows I modified it by using the pulley machine with the weights maxed out so that the stack wouldn’t move.
I don’t have the area that I workout in measured out so I’m not sure if the distances were all exact but I did enough of it to hopefully at least get close to the distances listed.
By the time I got to the run my body was so exhausted that I switched it up to a power walk since a run killed the smaller muscles throughout my calves and shins.
It was by far the hardest workout I have done in a few years and it felt amazing though I limped back home across the street.
As I type this now I have just taken my anti-nausea medication and in about 45 minutes I will be taking my first dose of chemo.
It is the next step in our journey. It will be a long year ahead with chemo 5 days every month, blood tests twice per month and MRIs every 2 months. We are as prepared as we can be but we are nervous about how tonight will go.
Tomorrow and the rest of this week I will be working from home due to the unknown of what will happen. Laura has also brought home her laptop just in case.