Breast cancer yoga

Avoiding yoga because one is inflexible is like avoiding eating because one is starving

Old saying per my instructor M

Naomi on the beach last month with her aunt practicing for her  yoga class

Recently a newsletter said that the Cancer Support Community was starting a new class; Yoga for Breast Cancer. Well sign me up although there is no sign up, one just shows up. I had tried yoga before during treatment but ended up in tears as my wig keep falling off and my muscles were so sore from Taxol. I realize that yoga is not a competitive thing but I also knew that in any given class, I would be the 'worst' one there due to my inflexibility and now total lack of balance and I hate being on the bottom. Josh recently has been going with his wife to yoga, granted an advanced class, and he is the worst one by far despite being a great athlete (no flexibility though he probably has great balance).

Four of us showed up. I knew two of them already and the third, bless her heart, is a newbie, currently on Taxol. The instructor M went through BC treatment at the same time I did and believes that yoga got her through the whole nightmare. We survivors seemed to have the same issues; lack of flexibility and extension on the side the cancer was on, lack of balance and mysterious pains near the affected breast that make us worry that it could be mets but probably is just damaged nerves. And the survivors who are on estrogen blockers have additional issues due to the fact that the drugs themselves give them  muscle and joint pains.

Our instructor promised to tailor the class to our needs. So the class went very slowly. It was a bit too 'new age-y' for me but maybe I have a bad attitude. Maybe I do need help learning to relax. The few times I have gone for massages, there have been comments on how tense all my muscles are. I did enjoy the instructor and my classmates. I will return.

I am an election day widow again. Steve left before 6 am to do his civic duty for a one issue school millage election. I probably won't see him for 14 hours.

And my house is now so much lighter. Once a year, we can get rid of 'electronic waste' for free. Last year this day was on the same day as the boys' baptisms so we missed it. Gone are the three huge TVs, numerous broken answering machines, keyboards, etc. I wasn't able to convince Steve to get rid of the numerous semi- working computers as they may have 'stuff' on them or the broken dehumidifier (huge, it might not have fit with all the other stuff) but at least some progress has been made. Now I just need to convince him that we don't need monthly progress reports going back 15 years for every brokerage account we ever had no matter how neatly he has compiled them or the several huge copies of chemistry reference books that no one ever uses and even if we did, all the info is on-line.