I hope you'll pardon my random updates. There are no new updates concerning my health, but I figured it's probably not a bad thing to write about how things are going.
Things with my oncologist remain wonderfully boring. I have my treatment every 28 days, always on a Wednesday, and it contains about 90+ minutes of waiting around and the 30-minute infusion. Every time she asks me the usual questions and they check my bloodwork. Every other appointment they check my thyroid because I guess I'm at high risk for thyroid issues. Things have been super stable and the dehydration issues haven't been as bad lately either, which is nice. My oncologist seems genuinely happy to see me when I come in and she said she'll probably send me for another PET scan in March.
At the end of December, I was thinking about how 2023 is a big year for me. It should be the year I finish my treatments, and I'll be turning 40. AND the year ends in 23, which is a meaningful number to me since I was born on a 23rd. So it's a big year for me! I was thinking about setting a big goal for myself just to see how it goes. I was thinking about how from my house to my parent's house in Michigan is 655 miles. And wouldn't that be a wild amount to run in the year?
Now, I know some people run 1000 miles in a year. That is something that maybe I'll set a goal for, but I'm not ready for anything that big. A goal of 655 miles means I have to run just over 12.1 miles per week, so four 5ks or three runs of just over 4 miles. Since I usually do a 5k every M/W/F, surely that seems attainable?
So anyway, goal set. Here I go. For January, I should be finishing out at 65 miles for the month (as long as I get my run in tomorrow!). Because I'm exactly the kind of nerd you know I am, I am also tracking my mileage in a spreadsheet and I've created this fancy dashboard to display my progress over the year. There's a lot to fill in, but I'm optimistic because I'm almost 10% done with my goal while we're not even 8% done with the year yet!
I have also made a smaller, less shiny goal of practicing mindfulness or meditation every day. I've been consistent with that since just after Christmas and I do think it's helped with anxiety.
So by the end of 2023, I am hoping I can look back on all this and think "hell yeah, I did it." Here's hoping!