Run bottle, run

Exercise is cancer-limiting and I was doing lots of it in the build up to treatment. Then the tube leading to my heart was connected to a baby bottle full of medicine and my bum was zapped with energy and the thought of exercise disappeared almost as quickly as my appetite.

But people should exercise, and so I started by walking on a treadmill until the anti-nausea medication restored a tolerance for food. Then I started jogging again.

Jogging with a PICC line is interesting, but not as interesting as it must be for passersby. I look like some type of half-man-half-machine from the future. The bandage wrapped around my bicep is big, the tube leading from it to the chemo bottle is obvious and the bottle stuffed down my singlet takes the shape of a metallic control panel.

Exercise can be used to prevent cancer, prevent tumours from spreading and prevent tumours from returning. Scientists have worked out how much exercise is required for each type of cancer.

Colon cancer is a demanding cancer when it comes to exercise.

My summary from Anticancer by D. Servan-Schreiber

Exercise can be measured in METs. A measure of 1 MET is the amount of energy your body needs to function when resting. Sadly, watching TV provides the body with as much exercise (1 MET, ie. none) as resting, even if you change the channel a lot like I do.

If your body is fighting breast cancer studies have shown you can really help it out by exercising for 9 METs a week. To help fight colorectal cancer you need to do 18 METs a week. To have an effect on prostate cancer you need to do 30 METs a week.

I feel scarred and heavy, but I have to keep moving