Go Take a Walk

One of the handouts from Duke says if you are feeling really tired, the best thing to do is to get some exercise every day, and you will start to feel better.

So, for the last five days, I have made myself take at least a short walk with Samantha the Golden Retriever. My house is at the bottom of a hill where two roads sort of dead end into each other, so there is this perfect short walk where I go up the hill, across a flat top part, and then back down the hill to my house in one loop. It's just one block, but it is perfect.

I sort of have to drag myself up the hill. My legs are so tired, right from the start. It wasn't like this before chemo. I liked walking up the hill fast.

It's an interesting walk because there are two houses under construction, and that is fun to watch. Although, they have both progressed to the point where most of the outside seems to be done and the interesting work is all going on unseen inside.

There are still a lot of empty lots for sale in the neighborhood. Those lots are all overgrown and fascinating to Samantha. So we both have a good time. Plus, if Sam poops in a wild lot, I don't have to pick it up.

Plus, my neighbors are all really nice. A couple of weeks ago, I came home with a huge bag of tomatoes. Awesome.

Today Lou took Samantha for the short one-block loop, then dropped her off at the house and then we went for a longer walk up by the driving range and the tennis courts and pool. The pool closes after today, I think. We still have never gone swimming there. Next summer for sure.

We had to stop a lot during the walk either because I was tired or out of breath. At one point, Lou suggested that I STOP TALKING because we were halfway up a huge hill, I was gasping for breath, and I was only halfway through some story about work.