It has been about two months since my last blog post. Since then, Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone and a new year is upon us. Not much to report on the melanoma, or even diabetes, fronts. I have my quarterly scans next month and, if all goes well, my scans after that will be scheduled every four months instead of every three, which will be nice. Management of my diabetes continues to be a challenge, but overall I feel better than I have in two years. I’m feeling very optimistic.
Speaking of Christmas, one of the gifts I received from Lynn is one of those fitness tracker “smart” watches. I wanted it mostly so that I could connect it via my cell phone to my CGM (continous glucose monitor). By doing this, I can now see my current blood glucose reading with a flick of my wrist instead of taking out my phone, and opening the app. Taking out my phone is awkward when I’m in a work meeting and dangerously distracting when I’m driving. I’m happy that I can get that information more easily now. For those that are interested in the technical details, my CGM is a Dexcom G6, and my smart watch is a Fitbit Versa 2 using the Glance watch face. Feel free to drop me a line if you want more info.
Aside from the CGM related benefits, this fitness watch has motivated me to be more active. I had a simpler fitness tracker before but somehow it didn’t motivate me to move the way that this new one does. Perhaps because I am looking at it frequently to check my glucose levels that I’m more aware of it. Anyway, I’ve set basic fitness goals: 10,000 steps, 5 miles walked, 10 floors climbed and 30 minutes of active exercise per day. I’ve done a fairly good job of meeting all of those goals most days. In fact, I thinking of increasing some of those goals. So yeah, I’m feeling pretty fit these days.
I know that I wrote last year that one of my goals for 2019 was to run a 5K. Well, that goal never made it past the thinking about it stage. I haven’t given up, I’m just carrying it over into the new year. I feel confident that I can make this happen in 2020. I already feel like I’m getting my legs under me, and that feels good.
I remember when I was first diagnosed stage IV 18 months ago. I was searching around on the web for any information I could find and I came across a video about a gentlemen who was about my age who had undergone or was undergoing immunotherapy treatment for melanoma. Not entirely coincidentally, the gentleman’s doctor is now my doctor. I tried searching for that video again so that I could post the link here, but I couldn’t find it. Maybe they took it down, I don’t know. What I do know is that video gave me a little hope. It showed the patient looking well, and doing active things such as walking in the woods with his wife. It seemed like such a simple thing at the time, but I wasn’t sure then if I dared to hope for that kind of quality of life while going through whatever treatment I ultimately decided upon. And here I am today, not really thinking about cancer and becoming a fitness geek. Go figure.
As usual, while there are no guarantees about the future, I’m confident that my next scans will be good scans, or “unremarkable” as the radiologists say. I’m looking for forward to a really good year.
And that’s my 2020 vision.