Status Quo

I'm still feeling a lot like I felt a couple days ago.  No energy.  No appetite.  Tired and achy.  For someone who trains like I do, this has been a tough week.  I'm just not used to feeling so run down, and I can almost always find a way to train at least a bit.  But, as of now, I've done nothing for three straight days.

I finally gave in and called my oncology nurses yesterday.  It's really nice that the oncology center has two triage nurses dedicated to patient problems.  I don't always get them on the first call, but I can be talking to them within an hour of any problem that arises.

After explaining what's going on, they agreed that I'd probably crossed the line - done more than my body was up for, and now I'm paying the price.  They were very glad that I had no fever.  They had a few ideas that we could try now, but it was mostly hydration and I think I'm doing OK there.  They also suggested a multi-day infusion of an anti-nausea medicine, but I'll be getting one of those on Monday with chemo, so I deferred.

We did come up with a plan for next week though.  Just some ideas to help me through the period between the chemo infusions.  We are going to do some hydration next Friday (after chemo on Monday) and add a multi-day anti-nausea medicine to the mix, hoping that those two elements will prevent this from happening again.

They would also like me to consider a somewhat lighter training load until I'm feeling better.  Given how I feel, I'm not going to argue.

I'm mostly curious where my weight will be on Monday.  From the first to second round of chemo, my weight was unchanged.  From the second to third, when I'd dealt with more nausea, I'd dropped 4 pounds.  This past week, if it wasn't for medical MJ, I doubt that I would have eaten at all in the past week.  I can barely taste food, I have no appetite, and I'm actively nauseous a lot of the time.  I think it's been 3 days since my last cup of coffee - a sure sign that I'm not feeling well at all.

Yesterday, I didn't eat a bite of food all day and I wasn't even hungry.  I finally felt a little bit hungry about 7:00, so I ate a medical MJ brownie.  After that took effect, my appetite came back and I had some pizza plus a slice of cheesecake for dinner.  That's not my normal diet, but these aren't normal times.

Tonight is the 5th and final workout of the CrossFit Open.  It's a hard workout - 9 barbell thrusters and 35 rope-jumping double unders.  Times 10.  For time.  With a 40 minute cap.

I really want a score, but it would honestly be stupid to do this entire workout.  So, I have a plan that will allow me to say I finished the Open, even though my last score is going to be pathetic.

I am going to do 9 thrusters tonight and then quit.  I'll then report that I failed to finish the workout in 40 minutes (this one should take me 18-20 minutes under normal conditions), and report my score as 9 reps in 40 minutes.  I'll finish last in my regional competition, but I'll have a score, I'll be able to sort of claim I "did" the Open.  Essentially, I'm going to score badly and then claim a victory of sorts.

I doubt that anyone will give me any grief for this, given that I've been doing the Open through chemo.  I just have to listen to my body (and my nurses) on this one.

I must live to fight another day.