When asked?

I got and email the other day from a climber asking about climbing and the aftermath of cancer and getting fit again that got me thinking about writing here again.  Here is my answer:

"Cancer?  Wow, just got back from my 2nd after action PET scan a few
minutes ago.  One year out from dianosis myself.  Good for you coming
up clean.

Physically I am still surprised how tired I can get for seemingly no
reason.  One day I can run 10 miles or bike 200 and the next week or
next day for unknown reasons I'll be exhausted by something I have 
no clue about.  So that is really weird.  Big thing for me is eating
right.  Still hard to eat most things with my fried throat and back
of my mouth. Bigger yet I think is the amount of sleep I get.  I now
need 8 full hours and generally more is better.  It is getting better
but that is the one common denominator...lots of sleep. Lots of sleep.

I've ridden my road bikes back into reasonably good shape and because I am
so much lighter I am running again.  Climbing is way more fun and not
nearly as hard.  But I lost a LOT of muscle mass as well.  More than I
cared to admit.  So I need to be lighter because I am not nearly as
strong.   At least for me the mental stress or lack of it
(running/swimming/biking) all stuff I have done since I was a kid have
really helped.  Chemo fried my brain a little as well.  My memory isn't as
good, I can't concentrate as well for long periods of time and I get
stressed much, much easier.  Hard to get wound up for the hard leads now as
well.  Possible but really different now.  I literally flip some kind of
mental switch on leads now.  Very weird. How you must suffer for a serious 
workout schedule was beyond me until just recently (last month or so. You know, the really hard hammering, gonna puke kind of workouts and long days?  I am just barely starting to get there now where I use to gobble those days up like
candy.

I hope that helps some.  I don't know anyone who has been through Cancer
of any type that is reasonably fit or climbs let alone rides a bike.  Lots
of women in the Tri scene but breast cancer is so different than what I
had.  Every cancer is so different and the treatments just as different.
None of them fun by any means or suppose to do anything besides kill the 
cancer.  What it does to the rest of your body is anyone's guess is my 
take on it.

My suggestion is just give yourself some time.  Took me a couple of 
months before I could even face the possibility of having to go back 
and start over. (Cancer or fitness)  Then one day I woke up strong enough
to think I was going to be "OK".  My wife ( the real hero here) has a 
saying, "fake it till you make it".  Which is what I did till one day I 
wasn't faking it.  Then I started to get stronger even though it was months later.  Today I feel pretty puny after the CT scan and am faking
it again.  But that too will pass eventually."