MDS: Doin' What I Can

I'm reading on Swedish.org that, for my best health, I should be exercising to whatever extent I can. But, the rain continues. Seems it's been raining for more than a week, making it difficult to get outside. I've been walking/jogging on treadmill as best I can. Still, you've gotta face it—even for a compulsive runner/jogger/exerciser like me, the treadmill gets tedious.

More so if you've spent all day home alone, ostensibly working, more often napping, with only the occasional phone call or batches of e-mail to offer contact with the outside world.

Or, on certain days, trips to the doctor for shots or blood-counting. In some ways, the exercise doesn't seem to matter.

Glancing at myself in storefront window reflections, or in photos like this one, I'm still seeing that prednisone belly.

How to rid myself of that?
How to jog longer, faster?
How to graduate from walk/jog to running?How, more importantly, not to get sucked into false hopes?

An e-mail arrived yesterday promoting acai berry pills as a weight-loss wonder that might even kill leukemia cells. Oh, you can immediately feel yourself clutching to an idealistic hope.

• Maybe this will give me more energy.
• Maybe this will augment the medications.
• Maybe this will at least eliminate the bowling ball belly.

Until you read this: Acai Berry Scams. So much for that idea. Instead you turn to this: MDS Nutritional Counseling. And, you ask yourself

• Will I actually buy a juicer?
• Will I actually buy carrots, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, turmeric, ginger, kale, beets, apples, pears, kiwi and any other fruits I wish?
• Will the juice taste as terrible as it sounds?
• Will I actually make/drink all that juice?

Doesn't seem likely.

Maybe I'll just stick to V-8.

Or, as the article suggests, eat pineapple. But, when an article—even one from a bonafide, reliable source—says things like "If your form of MDS involves low platelet counts, we encourage you to eat fresh pineapple. Canned pineapple is not the same!" you have to wonder.

I mean, if the fruit has a beneficial effect, what difference does fresh vs. canned make? And, if there is a difference, why not spell it out?

Oh, well. Yesterday, Penny and Leena (a.k.a., Laina-the-Elder) dragged me to the Bronx Botanical Gardens to see the roses. We must've walked a coupla miles. Then, in the late afternoon, I put in 30 treadmill minutes. Tomorrow, if it ever stops raining, I'll walk 9 holes of golf.

Just doing what I can.