Health

I am a cancer survivor (and other thoughts)

It occurred to me the other day that I hadn’t written anything on this blog that wasn’t a run report or birding-related since September 3 and wondered, why is it? Ennui? Lack of interest? Just plain laziness? Questioning the value of putting my thoughts out onto this weird, hollow shell we call the internet?

I’m still not sure, but one thing also rolled into my mind shortly after: That I survived cancer. A year ago I didn’t even know I had cancer. In fact, it wasn’t until after my surgery in May this year that it was confirmed to be cancer–specifically thymoma (warning: link includes a kind of gross photo of a thymoma), a “less aggressive” form of cancer that forms as a tumor inside the same space where the thymus gland lives.

The surgery successfully removed the entire tumor, with no evidence that it had spread at all, so I am, as of now, cancer-free. But that’s the thing with cancer–once it’s in you, it can come back, unbidden and unwelcome. It’s why I have a follow-up CT scan scheduled for the one year anniversary of the surgery, in May 2027.

I’m not concerned, exactly, though there is that thought that circles in the back of my mind: that it could return. And that would be no fun.

But does it explain the lack of blog posts?

Maybe, maybe not. I think it’s had some effect, because it’s made me pull back and start reexamining a lot of things, and deciding what’s important, what isn’t, and what silly things are still worth doing, even if they’re not capital letter Important. Is blogging one of them?

I think it is, but I’m not as sure as I once was. Many days this past month I had the urge to write something (my approach, discussed before, is: every topic, no matter how trivial or inane, is fair game), but I always held off. Of course, doing this creates a reinforcing habit of not writing. Someone offered the generic “follow your muse”, which is terrible advice because the muse doesn’t exist. It’s another way of saying. “Wait for inspiration,” which is also terrible advice. I mean, it’s good advice if you never want to do anything, because you can always claim, guilt-free, that the muse/inspiration never came to visit.

To do something you need to invest in it, put in the effort. Do the work. I enjoy writing and something happened this month that made me generally not want to. You have to go back to February 2020–over six years ago–to find a time where I posted less than 30 posts per month. Something happened.

Whether it was confronting my own mortality and being left unsure about the future, or something else, it put a stop to everything that wasn’t a semiautomatic thing (like the running posts). This carried over into other areas, too, where I just felt less engaged or plugged in. I became a spectator instead of a participant. And I don’t even use AI!

Anyway, I shall ponder things and see if other posts follow this one, and if so, when.

I am planning on trying Inktober this year, so that would guarantee a post-per-day and might lead to more. We’ll all find out tomorrow!

September 2026 weight loss report: Down 0.2 pounds

It looks like progress, but numbers can and do deceive! Let’s take a look.

First, the trends for the month:

  • First week: Going down, to a low of 170.3 pounds.
  • Second and third week: Going up, with a sudden 2 pound increase overnight that put me at 173.5 pounds. Yikes!
  • Fourth week: Going down again, ending just under where I started for the month.

The worst stat is body fat, which, if accurate, is up by 0.5%. It tends to bounce up and down a lot. I also started the month with a larger-than-normal weight gain. I thought, “Getting under 172.1 pounds will be easy!” and for the first week, that seemed to the case. But then stress and a weird sort of ennui I am still figuring out, settled in and I saw comfort, mostly in cookies.

You have probably noticed there are not a lot of diet plans prominently featuring cookies. Unless the plan is to gain a lot of weight, with most of it being fat.

The cookies are gone now. I have yogurt and tofu in the fridge. I will try to work through things mentally, which will also help with things physically. I at least kept up running consistently through the month, even if it didn’t result in any slimming (to be fair, I’d have to run a lot, like, a LOT to overcome a bag of cookies).

Here’s to October being a more slimming experience. I’ll just pretend Halloween candy doesn’t exist.

Stats:

January 1, 2026: 169.4 pounds

Current: 171.9 pounds
Year to date: Up 2.5 pounds

September 1: 172.1 pounds
September 30: 171.9 pounds (down 0.2 pounds)

Body fat: 
September 1: 26.2%
September 30: 26.7% (up 0.5%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
September 1: 30.1 kg
September 30: 30.1 kg (unchanged)

BMI:
September 1: 24.6
September 30: 24.6 (unchanged)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

August 2026 weight loss report: Up 1.7 pounds

In some crazy alternate universe I bet I was down!

And to be fair, it was the last few days of the month when my weight spiked that makes it look so bad.

But enough with excuses, on to the stats!

It’s a mix of good and bad. The month ended with cookies, so there’s that. Food is my comfort, but I am doing a bit better. Baby steps. Baby steps that don’t lead to a box of Pop-Tarts.

I’m going to boldly predict I will still be down for the year, though!

January 1, 2026: 169.4 pounds

Current: 170.7 pounds
Year to date: Up 1.3 pounds

August 1: 168.5 pounds
August 31: 169.4 pounds (up 0.9 pounds)

Body fat: 
August 1: 26.2%
August 31: 26.5% (up 0.3%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
August 1: 29.8 kg
August 31: 30.0 kg (up 0.2 kg)

BMI:
August 1: 24.2
August 31: 24.4 (up 0.2)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Some trees and a thought (not about trees)

First, this photo I took midway down the path to Lower Hume Park, showing trees and the park further below beyond them. I like the spot of sun on the centre tree.

My camera is a Samsung Galaxy S26, which I keep meaning to write a mini-review on.

And looking at the photo, which nicely obscures that it was taken in the middle of an urban sprawl…

The green to the left is Burnaby Lake Regional Park, where I jog. On the trails, not in the lake.

…I was reminded of an infection I got back in 2018. That might seem odd, and it is. Let me explain (or read this post, because I tend to chronicle all of my health issues and injuries for some reason). It was a kidney infection, which turned out to be a much gentler version of another I would develop six years later. This first one still resulted in me not being able to walk very fast as without a lot of discomfort while I recovered. Being forced to slow down made me pay more attention to my surroundings and I started snapping photos of local scenery and especially flowers. I dubbed this “flower therapy” because I found it very soothing to find some flowers, frame them, then snap a few shots.

And I still find it soothing. Lining up the shot of the trees above put me in an almost meditative mood. I’m sure there’s some science about chemicals being released into my brain. Maybe just plain old dopamine. Whatever it is, I like it, and it’s a simple pleasure I still indulge in eight years later, even without any infections (that I know of).

July 2026 weight loss report: Up 0.9 pounds

The weird part is I actually ended the month at the same weight as last month and the same weight as January 1, so in seven months I have achieved no weight loss (or gain) at all, which is impressive in its own way.

And that weight is 169.4 pounds.

Stats really didn’t shift too much. Body fat % is up a little, everything else is flat. I was bad when it came to snacking multiple times throughout the month. I had Pop-Tarts. I sought solace in food.

I again vow to do better. It could happen! I don’t have any handy snacks as we head into August, so that’s a plus.

Stats:

January 1, 2026: 169.4 pounds

Current: 169.4 pounds
Year to date: Unchanged

July 1: 168.5 pounds
July 31: 169.4 pounds (up 0.9 pounds)

Body fat: 
July 1: 26.0%
July 31: 26.4% (up 0.4%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
July 1: 29.8 kg
July 31: 29.9 kg (up 0.1 kg)

BMI:
July 1: 24.1
July 31: 24.2 (up 0.1)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Post-surgery, two months later

I went in for surgery on May 22, exactly two months ago, so I thought I’d check in and see where I’m at. Also, I like lists!

  • Starting about a week ago, I could sneeze and not feel it in my surgery area. This is a notable improvement.
  • It took about a month before my sleep returned to normal.
  • My three incisions continue to heal, but are still pretty visible. I am expecting scars in at least two of the three. Then I start scar therapy! Also, the puffiness is all gone now and when I rub my hand over the area, it feels mostly normal. Don’t get all pervy, I don’t do this a lot.
  • But when I do do it, I also note that there is still numbness in the immediate area above the surgery shenanigans. Whether this means it’s permanent or not remains unknown, but I’m leaning more toward yes, it probably is.
  • The hair on the left side of my chest has still not fully grown back yet. Meanwhile, if I don’t shave my face for two days, it looks like I’m growing a beard. Why is hair so weird?
  • My return to running was complicated this week by some extremely summer temperatures, climbing up to around 33-34°C. Even the mornings have been too warm, especially after not having the past six weeks to acclimate to the warmer weather. Friday is supposed to reach 29°C, which seems almost cool in comparison. I may try a run then.
  • Everything else is pretty much back to normal.
  • But I am always kind of aware of the surgery area or SA or some other clever name I’ll eventually come up with to describe where the surgical team spent two hours yoinking a tumour from my chest. It doesn’t bother me, but I now see a dividing line in my life: before surgery, and after.

And now, a cat.

Day 42: Six weeks later and I am officially past the full recovery window

So, am I fully recovered? No.

  • I still have visible scars where the two incisions were made
  • I still have visible marks where the chest tube was inserted
  • Both of the above will continue to heal, but there is a chance some of the scarring will be permanent and I will invent bear/shark-wrestling stories to explain them as needed
  • The surgery area still has a bit of numbness and definitely still feels like a place where surgery happened, though it’s in no way painful or anything like that. I think the “full recovery” on this may take further weeks or even a few more months.

But I have recovered enough that I am pretty much back to living what passes for a normal life again, with normal sleep (finally) and all the rest. I will stop the daily entries on my post-surgery experience and only mention it when it seems relevant.

With that said, enjoy one more cat.

Day 41: 33,548 steps (so far)

The bad (but not really that bad) news is I went a bit overboard on the steps today, walking so much before my run that I turned my 5K into a 2.5K (see previous running post for details) after slogging along for 16 minutes. The good news is that despite all the steps, I’m not totally exhausted or anything. During the run it was muggy, and I was slow. At one point I felt a bit of a stitch coming on, but it retreated, and I was fine.

I think I mentioned this before, but as I hit the six-week mark, I’m not feeling in any way restricted in what I can do now, but it does feel like it will be weeks yet or perhaps even months until the surgery carve-out in my chest feels normal(ish) again.

One more day before my daily post-surgery reports turn intermittent!

Here is the Six Million Dollar Man running. Today, six million dollars would buy you a bionic fingernail.

Holy cats, look at the fur. It was the ’70s, baby.

On the 40th day, the flood ended. Actually, I got new shoes.

What the title says. I got new Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 trail runners. They are size 42, which would normally be Bigfoot++ sized, but Scarpa is a European company and they sensibly use European measurements. It’s equivalent to a size 9 here, and the shoes seem to be about that, maybe just a tiny bit bigger. They look nice, have oodles of good reviews and seem to hit all my requirements, so we’ll see how they feel.

This has nothing to do with my surgery, which is a good thing. Surgery did not really cross my mind today except when I briefly talked about it with a neighbour.

Here’s a stock photo of the shoes:

On the 39th day I had a bath

This is not to imply that I do not normally bathe, or that I’m one of those people who believe you only need to wash your armpits and groin and the rest of your body can just naturally accumulate…stuff. It just means that I was told after surgery to avoid taking a bath for a while, since it could cause problems with the sutures/incisions due to all the soaking in water and such.

But as the title says, it’s been 39 days now, and it was time after a run and walk around the lake today to have a bath. It felt very nice to just sit back and soak for some time in the tub (full of bubbles because I am pushing the idea that bubble baths are great, because they are, in fact, great). I look forward to more of these simple pleasures in life.

Here is a cat having a bath, of sorts.

What makes Day 38 special?

Nothing!

I now wear the surgery like an old coat, familiar and a bit lumpy. I don’t think about it much, though occasionally I get a reminder, like a sudden twinge in one of the incision areas–the VCI1Video Camera Incision is still sensitive if I poke it. This is a good reason to not poke it.

But generally, things are just things.

No cat, it’s late and I sleep.

June 2026 weight loss report: Up 1.0 pounds

The weight gain literally happened on the second-to-last day of the month, when I jumped 1.4 pounds overnight. For most of the month I trended down.

There wasn’t too much movement overall, though, so it seems my surgery and recovery had little impact on my weight. I only ran once, right near the end of the month, and walked intermittently, but as I discovered way back in 2008, exercise is not the way to lose weight. Not eating bags of cookies is.

On the plus side, my muscle mass is up slightly! Maybe I’ll spend July eating protein-rich cereals and turn into some kind of hulking bodybuilder type.

Stats:

January 1, 2026: 169.4 pounds

Current: 169.4 pounds
Year to date: Unchanged

June 1: 168.4 pounds
June 30: 169.4 pounds (up 1.0 pounds)

Body fat: 
June 1: 26.7%
June 30: 26.3% (down 0.4%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
June 1:  29.7 kg
June 30: 29.9 kg (up 0.2 kg)

BMI:
June 1: 24.1
June 30: 24.3 (up 0.2)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds