The good bad session

[tubby]

since I've mentioned my health battle in a couple of threads, though I'd put it here. not sure if i am after encouragement for the down days, or just to get it off my chest.

Last year I was sitting with another older guy, the only ones above about 25, in a poomsae tournament commenting on the aches and pains of doing TKD into middle age, but it was much better than just getting fat and waiting to die.

A couple of weeks later I got a diagnosis of bowel cancer, which surprised even the doctors based on the symptoms and my age at 42. After seeing several doctors and scans, it was decided the way forward was oral chemo tablets and radiation first, then to cut out the affected bowels.

This gave me a 3 month period of radiation and recovery before surgery, and in that time I decided to enter sparring and poomsae again. I struggled from about 3 weeks of treatment on, I could exercise for about 45 minutes before a fog hit. Come tournament time I was looking ok in warm ups.but a bit slow in the head, and got flogged, or rather kicked in the head quite a bit. during sparring i can recall my thought process, theres a kick coming i should move, I really should move, I should have moved.I probably would have lost to this opponent anyway, but I am not normally completely useless as I was that day I am still not entirely sure I did the right poomsae later on but think I went ok. some may wonder if I should have competed, i was told there would be other tournaments but there were many things the surgeon couldn't know until he cut me open and it was very possible there would be no more for me after that. I kept training up until the days before surgery, and in fact 2 weeks after the end of radiation I felt better than i had in a ages.

Surgery was technically perfect and I was recovering ok. Then the physio was pushing for more exercise. This combined with a window facing the sun and tramadol (painkiller whos known effects are sweating) and my natural sweatiness made for quite temperature rises and for me to feel really awful. Not pain as suck just really yuck. I am not exaggerating when I say those were the darkest days I've had. finally I got home and tried walking, got 3 houses up the street and wasn't sure I could get home

the brochuers said you could be playing tennis 7-8 weeks after surgery. I didn't believe them but 7 weeks later I was back at training. Gently at first, but then found I could kick full range but had to temper power, my stomach still had a few holes in it as well as a stoma. I had been doing poomsae at home for a couple of weeks, though it would have made tai chi in a retirement home look dynamic.

then started the heavy chemo, hoping to clean up any particles that got away. Like all treatments his built up fatigue over time but overall it wasn't as bad as suggested. I worked most days around treatment, and to be honest felt like a fraud in the chemo ward, everyone looked a lot sicker than I felt, and on the bad days i felt people wondering what's this guys excuse for stopping half way up a set of stairs.

Now I'm close to the end of chemo, one more day of the pump i take home each cycle, then 1 more treatment in 2 weeks. Fatigue is hitting hard but I am trying to stay on top of it. My home sessions usually consist of warm up, then 15 1 minute rounds of skipping, shadowboxing or bag work interspersed with 1 minute of stretching. Of Late I've struggled there and after about 10 rounds it's much slower work. rather than pushing for that minute I'll recvert to slower exercises, mainly working on my side kick - the double kick and the walk-in front leg side kick from koryo, and the side kick from taebek. This is where I came away feeling i had done a good bad workout. Comparing to where I was 4 months ago, leg pressing 450kg, this was very weak. But I pushed my current boundaries and felt I'd improved a technical point that would limit my competition poomsae with my side kick. I sat on the floor for half an hour in front of the fan before I had the strength to leave the garage, but felt very calm and happy when i did.

the journey is far from over. I was in emergency last week when i couldn't handle any more pain from dvt/blood clots. 3 doctors and the clinical nurse from oncology had said it wasn't clots over the past 2 weeks but it was. now my final surgery for next month is off until at least june as I'm on a heavy course of blood thinners. That was a major blow, that milestone of final surgery was something I was counting on, and now will probably mean missing next dan grading scheduled for around that time but a day later I realised my stoma isn't the issue (unless I want to show my scarred dad bod off at the beach) but recover from the effects of chemo are the major issue and I am enjoying my training again, both in class and at home. after all that it's just regular blood test and scans to see if it comes back. that and hug my wife and sons every day. I've swapped work about to coach my kids under 5's aussie rules football team, and am doing the courses for that, and will probably sign up for WTF sparring ref and coaching courses.

So despite all the aches and pains, training through tkd really has proved better than just waiting around to die

[Bulltahr]

Yeap, gotta keep moving, never give up either........

MA has been great for a serious medical procedure, that I had in the past, feeling better right now than I have for years, with regards to my mobility......

[bushido_man96]

Its great that you have pushed yourself through it. It would be easy to just not do it, thinking of how bad it would be, but pushing through it at a time like this is better. Good on you!

[tubby]

Just getting chemo pump out aftet last session. Told it will take up to 4 months for all cells to regenerate now but it will all be slow and steady improvement rather than up for 1.5 weeks then crash.

CT scan in 3 weeks tho ugh to check if things have spread. Anxiety awaits

[sensei8]

You're in my thoughts and prayers!! Fight the good fight!! Follow your doctors instructions to the Nth degree, without fail.

[JR 137]

Keep "punching through." Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've been down the road before, right? Do what you did right last time, and don't fall into the same traps again (if any).

Your battling through this inspires me to stop making excuses and just get after it!

[Patrick]

Thanks for sharing this with us! Keep going. I'll be thinking good thoughts.

Patrick

[tubby]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've been down the road before, right?

before the colonoscopy that found the cancer i'd never been to a hospital apart from the birth of my kids. now I am such a regular it's like walking into the bar in cheers, everybody knows my name and I bump into various medical staff all over the place who have helped me. think of me as the perfect case for insurance , the last person you'd expect to come down with this.

Finished up chemo on Friday , back to training on Tuesday. fatigue and head spins ensued, that was the day for the painful leg exercises too. felt like a noodle afterwards but am getting better each day.

[LLLEARNER]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've been down the road before, right?

before the colonoscopy that found the cancer i'd never been to a hospital apart from the birth of my kids. now I am such a regular it's like walking into the bar in cheers, everybody knows my name and I bump into various medical staff all over the place who have helped me. think of me as the perfect case for insurance , the last person you'd expect to come down with this.

Finished up chemo on Friday , back to training on Tuesday. fatigue and head spins ensued, that was the day for the painful leg exercises too. felt like a noodle afterwards but am getting better each day.

Thank you for sharing. While my diagnosis is Multiple Sclerosis, I can see myself hitting some of those walls in the future. It gives me inspiration.

We have similarities. I have never been seriously sick, am 39, and the only time (besides work and visiting) I have been in a hospital is for my birth and my daughter's birth.

[tubby]

had my first CT scan since just after diagnosis on Monday, going in shortly to see oncologist for the results so quietly crapping myself just now. this is to see if it has spread, and the most likely place is to the liver which would be very bad.

on more positive notes, I finally decided to try squatting in the gym on the weekend, I've been avoiding it in case I blow out my abs either from the internal stitches or the stoma. Was a very light weight, less than half what I was doing before, but it went fine. My legs complained more about working that way again than my core did. And my instructor bought me a present - new poomsae dobok to encourage me to get back into competition. though he also said he wouldn't let me spar yet, but he said that last time I did it during radiation and I must admit, that didn't go so well.

feeling much better in general though. Cycling kids around to daycare and taking the 20km long way home, and the under 5's footie team is a handful to coach but a lot of fun. cardio is a challenge but I'm working on it, 30 minutes after weights twice a week on top of training