Bud Baker
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Posts posted by Bud Baker
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I really think that's the right attitude, Judy. If a team of medical people can't definitively say the cancer is back, I say it isn't.
I take it one step further, and don't even have much anxiety before my scans. Of course, I originally continued to think it was nothing when they called me in for a CT scan after my suspicious chest x-rays. It was a blow when the CT scan identified it as cancer, but I still think it's better to roll with the punches after bad news than to get worked up with anxiety, trying to prepare yourself beforehand.
Glad you're feeling good! I think that's the best news of all.
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News not as good as we'd like, but tumor shrinkage is great. Best wishes and keep us posted.
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Big congrats, we love stable!
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Good morning, everyone!
It was 74 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 96 degrees. It's still cloudy and humid, but the rain is supposed to be pretty much over.
I rode to work all four days this week. I'm off tomorrow, and going fishing. In fact, I'm off the next five Fridays. People ask me how I can ride and fish in the Texas heat. They're actually a lot easier than my main summer activity, which is wearing hot clothes while working on hot machinery in an un-airconditioned machine shop. So, I take some Fridays off in the dog days of summer to give myself a break from the heat.
Have a great day, all!
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Funny the way our minds work. My Roger Miller reference got Eric thinking about music. For me, right after I posted it, I remembered what Roger Miller died of, on October 25th, 1992. Check his Wikipedia page here.
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Good morning, everyone!
It was 76 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 89, and they've upped the chance of rain to 50 percent. Hopefully, that rain won't be showing up at the time I'm riding home.
Eric, it usually is just dry and hot in the summer here, but not always. It varies a lot. Some summers, we get 40 days over 100 degrees, other summers, we get none. And some years, summers are a lot more humid and we get rain often. This seems to be one of those.
Oh, and Eric, that old Roger Miller song just wouldn't sound as good if he had called it, "You can't rollerskate in a bison herd."
Have a great day, all!
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Exercise nut that I've become, I had to post this:
CHICAGO – Cancer patients who’ve been told to rest and avoid exercise can – and should – find ways to be physically active both during and after treatment, according to new national guidelines. Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a member of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will present these guidelines at an educational session at the 2010 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, aimed at making cancer exercise rehabilitation programs as common as those offered to people who have had heart attacks or undergone cardiac surgery. (Exercise Testing and Prescription for Cancer Survivors: Guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine)
Schmitz, whose previous research reversed decades of cautionary exercise advice given to breast cancer patients with the painful arm-swelling condition lymphedema, led a 13-member American College of Sports Medicine expert panel that developed the new recommendations after reviewing and evaluating literature on the safety and efficacy of exercise training during and after cancer therapy.
“We have to get doctors past the ideas that exercise is harmful to their cancer patients. There is a still a prevailing attitude out there that patients shouldn’t push themselves during treatment, but our message – avoid inactivity – is essential,” Schmitz says. “We now have a compelling body of high quality evidence that exercise during and after treatment is safe and beneficial for these patients, even those undergoing complex procedures such as stem cell transplants. If physicians want to avoid doing harm, they need to incorporate these guidelines into their clinical practice in a systematic way.”
Cancer patients and survivors should strive to get the same 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise that is recommended for the general public, the panel says. Though the evidence indicates that most types of physical activity – from swimming to yoga to strength training – are beneficial for cancer patients, clinicians should tailor exercise recommendations to individual patients, taking into account their general fitness level, specific diagnosis and factors about their disease that might influence exercise safety. Cancer patients with weakened ability to fight infection, for instance, may be advised to avoid exercise in public gyms.
One persistent area of concern for cancer patients is change in body mass – both weight gain and weight loss tied to disease symptoms and treatment side effects. Patients with hormone-based tumors, breast and prostate cancers, tend to gain weight during treatment and frequently have difficulty losing it. Other patients, especially those with gastrointestinal tumors, suffer from weight loss brought on by loss of appetite and changes in their ability to swallow and properly digest food. The new guidelines indicate that both groups can benefit from exercise. Studies show, for instance, that exercise for weight control and reduction in body mass may actually reduce the risk of recurrence for breast cancer patients, and ultimately decrease breast cancer mortality. For patients suffering from cancer-related weight loss, physical activity helps to maintain lean body mass, which can contribute to increased strength and well being.
Schmitz and her colleagues analyzed published studies related to five different adult cancer types (breast, during and after treatment, prostate, hematologic – with and without stem cell transplant – colon, and gynecologic), and reviewed the evidence for multiple health outcomes. The panel found that although there are specific risks associated with cancer treatment that need to be considered when patients exercise, there is consistent evidence that exercise training can lead to improvements in aerobic fitness, muscular strength, quality of life and fatigue in breast, prostate, and hematologic cancer patients and survivors. They found the data for colon and gynecologic cancers were too scant to draw firm conclusions, and identified several areas requiring further study. Age, for instance, is a critical variable, Schmitz says, since more must be learned about the effects of physical activity in cancer patients over age 65, to develop interventions that may help these patients continue to live and function independently.
The panel urges fitness professionals to enhance their capacity to serve the unique needs of cancer survivors. Schmitz noted that a “groundswell” of training programs now assist physical therapists and fitness trainers in deepening their knowledge of the effects of cancer diagnosis and treatment and improve their skills in this emerging area.
Schmitz also feels strongly that practicing oncologists need to be informed about the new guidelines and their importance, and says that patients can play a role in changing attitudes and clinical practice. Her hope is that patients will read the recommendations and discuss them with their doctors, creating the demand for change that will drive more cancer centers and oncology practices to create and offer cancer exercise rehabilitation services.
Here's the link to the article:
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Good morning, everyone!
It was 71 degrees as I rode to work this morning. That's the coolest morning I've seen in a while here. Forecast high is 91, and we still have a 30 percent chance of rain.
I was dodging storms on the way home yesterday afternoon. It sprinkled most of the ride, but the serious rain and lightning waited until just after I had rolled my bike into the garage.
Last night was support group night, but it's a long enough drive across the metroplex that I wasn't willing to drive it in the rain, the second month in a row that I've conceded it to storms.
Have a great day, all!
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Good morning, everyone!
It was 76 degrees and cloudy as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 94. They're giving us a 40 percent chance of showers. I went fishing yesterday morning and never quite got around to stopping by.
Donny, I forgot to mention that it was good to see you post Friday. I hate to hear about the fatigue. Chronic fatigue seems to be the norm once lung function gets below a certain point. Can they do something to help the obstruction?
Not much going on here, just another day of work. Have a great day, all!
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Welcome, but sorry you need to be here. This early part where you don't have answers for so many questions is one of the scariest times. We all feel better when we know more and have a plan in place. Keep us updated.
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Welcome, Libby. I had stage II squamous cell and also had the upper lobe of my left lung removed. I had three rounds of chemo afterward. Last week, I had my scans, 2 1/2 years after surgery, am still cancer free, and have been changed to annual scans.
There's no doubt that a bout with lung cancer changes you for good. It's hard to avoid the paranoia and sense of dread that it will return. It also has a way of changing your perspective on things.
I think it does the soul good to talk about it all with others who are also there. I attend a local support group that our Katie Brown started. It seems hard to get a lung cancer specific group going, though. A lot of lung cancer patients tend to retreat to within themselves. I hope that's something we can help change.
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Good afternoon, everyone!
It's pretty cloudy here, but still hot. The rain is quite a ways away, in the panhandle of Texas and northern Oklahoma.
I rode 50 miles from home today. I stopped by and visited at City Cyclist. The owner spent most of the hour and a half I was there letting a couple test ride recumbents behind the shop. They mentioned the faired recumbent they see all the time on Crowley Road.......LOL. The owner says he gets that a lot. I guess I should let him put some kind of advertising on my bike. I'd send in even more customers that way.
Eric, vehicles with windows too dark is illegal here, too, but it's a law that's pretty much ignored by law enforcement people. Way too many cars drive here without being able to see well at night. It's a pet peeve of mine.
Katie, I hope your dreams aren't premonitions. I'd just as soon stay away from wheelchairs. I hope you get a break from the storms soon, MI Judy.
Note to self: Don't get behind Stan and Judy's RV on the bike......LOL. Have a great day, all!
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Good morning, everyone! TGIF!
It was 80 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 97, still with a 20 percent chance of rain.
I rode to work all 5 days this week. It was some nice northbound with a tailwind rides to work in the morning darkness, but the afternoon southbound trips against the hot wind were a bit tough.
Just after I turned onto the shoulder of Crowley Road yesterday afternoon, a very pimped out car pulled up beside me. The rap music blasting from it was deafening, even with the completely blackened windows all the way up. Before I had time to wonder what was going on, the passenger window came down, and a gangsta-looking young man behind the wheel turned the music down, leaned over, looked at me, and said, "Your kickstand's down!" I thanked him, stopped, and raised my kickstand.
Have a great day, all!
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Good morning, everyone!
It was 76 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 96. They are giving us a 20 percent chance of rain today and tomorrow, so who knows?
Not much going on here, just slaving away at work. It would sure be nice to have some easy office time during this really hot weather, but it never quite works that way.
Have a great day, all!
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Good morning, everyone!
It was 78 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 97. Second verse, same as the first...
I had to laugh at your menu comment, Eric. Rose and I discovered that we can't read a menu, newspaper, or anything else together. I still have great vision for things at a distance (can read a sign before anyone else in the car or spot a bass on a bed before anyone else in the boat) but can't see anything up close without my reading glasses. Rose doesn't see well at a distance, but if she can hold something very close to her face, she can see if perfectly. So, if we try to read something together, I'm trying to hold it as far away as possible and she's trying to get it right up next to her face. The only way we can read it together is if I get up and read it over her shoulder.
I'm with Eric, Katie. I love seeing photos here though, like many others, I'm always in a hurry so often don't comment. Have I mentioned that I'm really ready to retire and stop being in a hurry?
Have a great day, all!
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It was 78 degrees as I rode to work this morning, with a forecast of 97 this afternoon, pretty much the same boring forecast every day lately.
I'm enjoying one of my Atomic Fireballs right now, which just came in. For those who've never had them, they're hot cinnamon hard candy. Wouldn't you know that about the time I decided to start eating them again, Sam's quit carrying them, so I ordered them online.
I had quit them back when I was trying to cut down the amount of refined sugar I was eating. These days, using agave nectar or stevia to sweeten things, and eating very little with refined sugar in it, I decided that a few 30 calorie sugary cinnamon candies every day wasn't going to hurt me.
Have a great day, all!
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So sorry you're going through this, Judy. One of my biggest hopes for this disease is that there will eventually be good treatments that don't cause the harm and long term problems that today's treatments do.
But, of course, that doesn't help you now. All I can do is send a long distance hug your way.
You are right to have that spot checked out. I lost a friend to melanoma last year, a reminder of how dangerous it can be.
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Here's hoping everything improves for you during this break.
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Good morning, everyone!
It was 75 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high for this afternoon is 98.
Wow, sounds like you've been way busy, Eric. Be careful with the fumes and dust that you breathe when you're doing the bedroom remodeling. My lungs always were sensitive to that, and it's been worse since my surgery.
I hope you enjoyed the Haleiwa Arts Festival, Ned, and I hope that chemo nurse keeps seeing new posters for many years to come.
Not much going on here, just work. Have a great day, all!
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Good morning, everyone!
It was 80 degrees when I got up this morning. Forecast high is 105.
I got out and washed the truck before it got too hot. But I think I'm just going to take it easy the rest of the day. I rode 100 miles in the 100 degree heat yesterday, and it will be a hot week at work this coming week, so I'm thinking an easy day in the air conditioning may be in order.
I think Rose overdid it a bit yesterday, working, then spending the evening visiting. She's planning on resting today, too. Perhaps we'll just be tv zombies all day.
Have a great day, all!
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MI Judy, I know what you mean about the puppy. Pixie (alias the Gremlin) is 5 months old now, and has changed so much lately. I usually go to bed earlier than Rose (since I always get up at dark-thirty), and have been letting both dogs come to bed with me. Rose has been moving Pixie to her kennel in the bathroom when she comes to bed. But, Pixie has gone all night without any accidents for a while now, so on Thursday, she let her stay in the bed. So, I guess it's two dogs in the bed every night now.
We've also stopped blocking any of the house from Pixie, since she's become house trained well, and she insists on trying to watch over everyone. If we're apart, she'll go back and forth, checking on us. If the other dog is outside and she isn't (they can use the pet door any time), she'll be whining by the door waiting for him. I guess it's just a female dog mothering thing. And she's turning out to be one of the most affectionate dogs I've ever seen. Now, if she'll just ever get past the biting and chewing stage...
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I agree with ts and Judy. Do what you need to do, to help yourself battle this disease, but don't let it keep you from enjoying yourself to the max whenever you feel well enough to do it. Life is too short (even without cancer) to do otherwise.
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Good morning, everyone!
It's 75 degrees with a forecast high of 103. I'm off to do a 100 mile club ride. Nothing more fun than a 100 mile ride on a 100 degree day.
It's always an adventure at the VA hospital, always lots of real characters there. But there are lots of really sick people, too, a reminder for me to be thankful for my good health lately.
My blood pressure was 98 over 67. They always do the same thing when it's that low. First, they'll check it again. Then, they'll check the computer to see if I'm on blood pressure medication, then ask if I'm on something that's not listed on their computer. It's just naturally low. It was low when I was a young man, and it's gotten low again after I started riding so much.
Have a great weekend, all!
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Hi, Heidi. Good to hear from you. Yes, we wish we could solve all of our loved ones' problems for them, but alas, we can't.
Thursday's Air
in JUST FOR FUN
Posted
I know what you mean about the dust and chemicals, MI Judy. My lungs didn't like those even before my surgery.
Sounds like you're almost home, KW Judy. I'm betting you're ready to be home.
Here's a photo Rose sent me via cell phone. She says this is the view she gets every morning, while sitting on the toilet........LOL