A little mid-week update: I am in week 2 of radiation and oral chemotherapy. This week has been much better than last. I feel good. And I am thankful, grateful and happy to be feeling this good. I think last week I was recovering from being in the hospital so long. I still lay down every day around 3pm or so because I am tired but also rest is a discipline. In my head, I have a skewed concept of rest. Growing up, it was this concept that idleness leads to fill-in-the-blank with something bad. So as kids, we were never idle around the house. But me and my pigtail ponytails (which I wore every day, except Sunday, until the 3rd grade) wanted nothing to do with the chores and work around the house. This is why I made sure to get out of dodge to avoid the busyness of chores. My two older sisters definitely took one for the team, aka me, as I meandered and played with friends all over our little town. Did I have chores? Absolutely! Did I try to avoid them? Also, absolutely! Did I get in trouble for avoiding these said chores? Again, absolutely. Did I still have to do my chores with a sore butt? Absolutely. So here is my conflict with rest because rest was equated with being lazy. But I am in a crash course of learning the importance of rest. And it is fascinating. What our bodies can do is amazing if we allow our bodies to do what they know to do. If we are always in this fight or flight (sympathetic system) it makes it even harder for our body to heal. So by learning to rest, I give my body a greater chance of recovery and healing while in chemotherapy, while in radiation, while going through cancer on my road to perfect health. I knew rest was important but I did not realize the scientific evidence for the importance of rest. And I’m sorry if I am overkill on these more than chemo/ radiation concepts but I firmly believe that these lessons I am learning might be helpful or useful to someone else. Don’t let your mind make you feel guilty for allowing some rest into your daily activities. Tell your brain it is ok to rest and rest.

Liz