Tuesday, November 07, 2006

at least i roasted a chicken

The path to recovery from cancer treatment is certainly neither straight nor flat. In fact, if I were training on a path like this one, I'd have some serious thighs of steel.

My commitment to taking good care of myself has been somewhat inconsistent. Some days I eat really well (today, I roasted a chicken, an experience that gave new meaning to the phrase, 'It takes a village' - or in this case, a good friend on the phone and an internet search). Some days, nary a vegetable crosses my lips.

Some days I manage a long, vigorous walk and my strength training exercises (key to strengthening my arm and relieving the pain in my shoulder). Some days, the end of the day rolls around and I have barely left the couch.

My return to work has felt a little bumpy as well. Today, I worked on an assignment I was asked to do last week. I had it almost finished when I left (I am working three hours, two mornings a week for the first month). Later this afternoon, I found out that a colleague had started work on the same little project. And I realized that what I had done was WRONG.

This totally bummed me out.

But I roasted a chicken today ('Do I need to do anything to the vegetables before I throw them in?' 'Which end of the chicken is the neck?' 'What do the innards look like?' 'Will the house burn down if I take a walk while it's cooking?' Thank goodness for my friend H., even if she couldn't stop laughing). That's something.

And I haven't missed a walk in more than a week.

When I finish this post, I'll clean up the kitchen and, then, I will do my exercises.

I don't really have the choice of giving up, or, to beat a metaphor to death, of leaving the path I'm on (though some days I need to just plop myself down in the dirt and have a good vent about how hard this can be). I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and hopefully, as time goes on, those hills will feel a little less steep.

3 comments:

amanda said...

Doncha just love people who post as "Anonymous"? I have no idea what it said but it must have not been good. I'm sorry for that, babe. On the other hand, your dinner sounds like it was really yummy!

Anonymous said...

Now, this is really interesting. Was it something about the chicken that evoked an unpublishable posting from "anonymous"? Or was it the roasting? Perhaps the juxtaposition of roasting/vegetables...anyway, some of us can be stimulated to potty posting by just about anything it seems.

But please, when you roast a chicken...tell us all, even later on in the day, how it was.

laurie said...

The post I deleted was NOT from someone with a chicken fetish (that might have been worth leaving there) but from a spammer, telling how I could make an easy $800 dollars a day...

As for the chicken, it was one of life's little successes, thanks mostly to my friend, H.