Six Years Goes By In the Blink of an Eye!

Apparently for the last few years, my blog title wasn't quite accurate!

Since my last post, my arm healed, I WON an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles during Oscar week for a much needed vacation, had another ophthalmology position that I loved for 2 years, traveled to Malta and Italy on my 'summer vacation,' lost three family members in the space of 14 months, and relocated to Florida, whereupon I ended up back in Los Angeles! It was a short lived consulting gig, so I returned to Florida to try and acclimate to my new surroundings.

Then--- life really took a detour, sidelining me again!! This time, with breast cancer. I was so lucky - no chemo and no mastectomy. Cancer is not a walk in the park - in addition to being a catastrophic health crisis, it's an emotional cyclone. It's painful and time consuming, especially when your radiation schedule, hellish enough on its own, is interrupted by massive power outages due to a record-breaking hurricane. In simplest terms, it SUCKED. I'm SO glad it's behind me.

You can blow on food to cool it down if it's too hot. My entire body was on fire, and I had no air conditioning for 11 days!! Fast forward past all that. Go ahead, it's OK, I did! A little cancer never slowed me down!

Now, I ride my bike to the gym, spend 15 minutes on the elliptical and row 15 minutes. EVERY. SINGLE.DAY.

OK, I don't actually ride the bike ALL the time. I am in Florida, after all--- sometimes it's too hot out! But then I add some tricep work into my routine. The only thing that keeps me showing up is that it's a 'prescription.' I equate it to opening up the medicine cabinet and taking my daily dose. You wouldn't skip a day if a medication was saving your life, would you?

I also cut white carbs (flour, rice, bread, pasta, baking potatoes), fried food and sugar out of my diet. I try to eat more plant based selections (minimal dairy, chicken, turkey and eggs and no red meat at all) and take a selection of carefully curated vitamin/mineral supplements chosen after copious amounts of my own internet research.

TIP: Ladies, squeeze your lemons monthly. You may find a warning sign BEFORE your mammogram, which you should never skip!

I daresay I'm in the best shape I've been in for a VERY long time. And I need to keep it this way, because besides taking tamoxifen, exercise is the #1 thing you can do to prevent recurrence. #2 is cutting out alcohol, but a girl's gotta live, you know! I feel I must do everything else religiously to make up for the one thing I don't want to. So, I'm still a red wine lover. In moderation, of course 😀

I healed, I worked, I traveled, I moved, I healed again, and now I'm starting over in Florida.

OK, so now you're all caught up. What have YOU been up to for the last 6 years?