Posts Tagged ‘’
Zac Smith Praying to Survive
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010Swim for Cancer Research
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Ladies and Gentlemen? Take Your Mark? Go!
I would so totally do this if it weren’t for the buckets of water that flood my nose every time I swim, or my hate-relationship with swimsuits, or the fact that sucking air at the end of each lap makes me kind of cranky. Swimming is just not my thing. Running, yes. Biking, sure. Just not swimming. It’s the one thing that will forever keep me from competing in triathlons. Wait, that’s a lie. I just don’t want to compete in triathlons. The swimming thing is just a convenient excuse.
You, on the other hand, might love swimming. Or maybe you don’t, but you’re willing to take a stab at a great challenge. If that sounds like you, then I want you to try this out, and let me know how it goes. Why? Because it helps us cancer girls and guys, and because if you do it, then I won’t feel so guilty for not taking the plunge myself.
Here’s the deal, all wrapped up in a pretty press release:
swimchallenge.org
Aqua Sphere Challenges Men and Women to Swim for a Cause
Aqua Sph ere is the worldwide brand of choice for swimming gear, based on the highest industry standards of design and innovation. Launched in the mid-90s as a division of the diving industry leader Aqua Lung, Aqua Sphere is committed to supplying eye protection for dedicated or casual swimmers, enabling them to feel safe, comfortable and at home in the water. The company’s numerous innovations include the Seal, the first swim mask featuring 180° vision and Kaiman, the first panoramic goggle. For more information, call (800) 775-3483, or log on to www.aquasphereswim.com.
Next Up: A Job
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Photo: alohalady, Flickr
My past four months of unemployment have been delightfully calm and relaxing, but the time has come, and I’m going back to work. Actually, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll still be right here in my house, with my favorite laptop, cup of hot green tea, candle burning and fire roaring (well, at least until it warms up a bit — gosh, it’s cold here in Florida).
There’s a special someone all the way across the country to whom I am very grateful for my new job. We’ve worked together before, she knows my scenario (the one where I want a life full of family and void of high stress), and she reached out because she wants to work with me. I am flattered, touched and ready to become an at-home professional again. Note to the person I’m writing about: Thank you.
Monday is the big day. That’s when I’ll start working with SEED.com — SEED assigns, buys and distributes work for all of AOL’s properties, like That’s Fit (where I last worked) and more than 80 of the Web’s most highly-trafficked and respected websites. I’ll be kind of a community builder among the writers and photographers aiming to get published. There’s more to it than that, really, but I won’t bore you with the details.
I will say this: if you are someone who does freelance writing and photo stuff, you should stop by and register.
Create. Be Heard. Get Paid.
That’s the point.
And I can’t wait to be a part of it.
Flashback: November 29, 2004
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
SarahMcD ?, Flickr
On November 29, I met with a surgeon at Shands who prepared me for my first step: surgery. He said he would remove the lump and would determine whether or not my lymph nodes were cancerous. He would check all the margins around my breast to see if any surrounding tissue was affected and would identify all the defining factors of my cancer. If he found extensive cancer, he would have to remove my breast. I had to sign a form stating that my surgery was to be a lumpectomy but could turn into a mastectomy. My surgery was scheduled for Friday of this same week.
Flashback: November 16, 2004
Monday, November 16th, 2009
Remembering 2004
I felt a lump in my left breast while taking a shower. I have always been aware of what my breasts feel like. I have a lot of dense tissue — so dense that the surgeon who performed my breast reduction (in 1996) had trouble separating the tissue to take some out and leave some in. My breasts always seem lumpy to me, and I never knew if I’d be able to tell the difference between normal and abnormal tissue. I once had a mammogram because of something I felt. It all turned out fine. It was just the dense tissue. All of my annual GYN visits have revealed nothing abnormal. But I’ve always been aware and curious, which is why I found something in the shower. I knew it was not normal. It was hard, and it felt like a small, frozen green pea. It moved around, and for the first few days, I had a hard time locating it. Once I became obsessed with it, I could find it immediately.
Cancer: No, Pulse: Low
Friday, September 4th, 2009
Keeping a Pulse on Cancer
My body is free of cancer, at least as far as my radiation oncologist can tell from a clinical exam — just had a follow-up visit this morning, and I appear to be A-OK, which is great news and all, but even better at the moment is what I learned about my resting pulse (or heart rate).
Right after I was weighed and my blood pressure was taken, my heart rate clocked in at 47. “Oh My Goodness, 47?” said the nurse. “That’s really low.” I guess I knew this, I’m always pretty low, but her surprise threw me for a minute. “Is that OK?” I asked. She told me it’s just fine and asked if I’m a runner. I told her that I am. I mean, I’m not a marathoner or anything, in fact, a 5K is pretty much tops for me. But I do run, and walk, and make often-lazy attempts at push-ups, planks and other body-weight exercises. I guess it all adds up.
“Fit people usually have low resting heart rates,” the nurse told me. I took that as a compliment. Then I came home and found this on Pat Croce’s website:
One of the greatest barometers of your fitness status—that is, your ability to expend energy—is your resting pulse rate. The lower your pulse rate (also referred to as your heart rate), the less energy you expend doing menial tasks and the more energy you keep stored for other activities. Ironically, the best way to lower you resting heart rate is to exercise or engage in physical activity.
On average, the American Heart beats about 70 to 80 times a minute. The active or athletic heart beats around 60 bpm. And the highly trained athletic heart beats in the range of 40 to 50 bpm. For example, it has been reported that Tiger Woods has a resting pulse rate in the low 50’s and my friend Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong—who wrote the Forward for my book 110%—was monitored in the low 40’s. I’m proud to say that my resting pulse rate is in the high 40’s.
Hmmm, “highly trained athletic heart” — not sure about that, but it sure is motivating to know my heart is seemingly healthy. Makes me want to go out for a run. Tomorrow.
Cancer – Are We Close to a Cure?
Thursday, June 11th, 2009Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Weighing on my mind
Friday, March 20th, 2009
I admit it, I’m concerned about my weight. Not worried about it, just concerned about in a way that makes me work at keeping it right where it is. But I don’t exercise and eat right (yesterday doesn’t count) for weight reasons alone. I also do it for my overall health, which really is a bigger concern for me than the numbers that stare up at me from my scale each day.
A healthy lifestyle as it relates to cancer prevention gets a lot of press. It’s pretty much a fact nowadays that by eating certain foods, ditching all the junk and working up a good sweat most days of the week, we can ward off all sorts of disease. Simple stuff. Also pretty high pressure.
Now that I’ve had cancer, I know that the way I live my life can quite possibly keep me from getting it again. So I do my best. But when I cheat and eat that plate of chicken nachos or skip a day (or week or month) on the workout circuit, I feel guilty, as if I’m rejecting the medicine that can keep me well. It’s a weird mix of motivation and burden. Knowing I have the key to a long, healthy life makes me want to eat veggies for all of time. But knowing I have the key to a long, healthy life makes me feel like I’m doing myself a major disservice when I steal fries of my kids’ dinner plates.
I know, I’m human, and I can’t be perfect all that time. Still, it weighs on my mind. Which is why today, I walked for 3.5 miles, and tomorrow, I plan to lift a few weights. A fruit salad is on the menu for breakfast this morning, and I’m recommitting to a ban on most packaged foods. It’s the least I can do to ensure I’m here for the long haul.
Makes me want to run
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
The day after his mom passed away from lung cancer in 2007, my friend Rob started to run. He’s been running ever since. Of his early days as a runner, he says: “During the next year I ran some 300 miles. I ran a series of races: 5k, 5mi, 10k, a half marathon and on what would have been my mothers’ 60th Birthday (January 13th) I ran 26.2 miles across the mild Arizona desert in my first marathon. I ran on sand, on pavement, on dirt, on gravel and even through Camp Pendleton’s mud.”
Rob runs in the morning, in the rain and in bitter cold temperatures. Clearly, the guy is hooked. And he’s starting to write all about his love for the run. “I wanted to start a blog to help others understand how to find their passion and get as much out of life as I do,” he writes. “It took a series of major events for me to find the focus I have today. I’d hope that through sharing my stories and advice that the world will be a better place for you.” Here is where his story begins.
