The third receptor

The scenic beauty road near me that I ran and biked on this morning.As one can see, it is sunny. It is also relatively warm and windless

How you are treated for breast cancer depends largely on your receptor status for estrogen, progesterone, and her2. Of these three factors, progesterone is by far the least important factor though in studies correlating breast cancer risk with replacement hormones,an association with increased breast cancer with use of replacements with estrogen  and progesterone is observed but not with estrogen replacement alone. (using estrogen alone with women with uteri however increases chances of uterine cancer and blood clots).

I returned to the Y yesterday for the Livestrong program for recovering cancer patients. There is time to do an aerobic workout, work out on the machines and then meet to stretch and do balance exercises. Why do I still need this nearly 4.5 years after treatment ended? I still can't fully extend my right arm. I still have balance issues (though much less). And I can't expect too many days like today (perfect) to go outside and do my workouts. Plus despite all the free weights and exercise bands lying around my house, I don't seem to have enough discipline to use them. So first the elliptical and then the weight machines. As usual, I do fine with the lower body ones but I seemed to have lost a lot of upper body strength. It will return. I see myself carving a body out of this mess like a hot knife through butter. Our instructor had to leave right before our class was to begin. A back-up person had us do various stretches. I could no longer do the hurdler's stretch on the left side. Doing the group activities is optional.

Back on the machines, I see a woman I met 4 years ago in the cooking class. A relief: she is still alive! On her tenth cancerversity (when usually you could breathe a sigh of relief), she discovered that BC returned as Stage 4 in her bones. She was told that at best, she had 2 years left. She made a mental note of her expiration date as she called it. I met her around the time of the expiration date. Blocking estrogen did not slow the mets but it turns out that blocking the progesterone did. I didn't get a chance to talk to her but the fact she was on one of the machines bodes well.

And yeah, I am so sore today from those machines. I kept waiting for the endorphins to kick in on my run. They did but alas, they faded.