[ this is offered as just a personal anecdotal story, and in the spirit of
sharing. whether you should exercise or not is, imho, something you should
talk about with your doctor/team and is obviously "framed" by the type of
cancer you have, its seriousness, and your symptoms, and limits.]

Today was bloody hot in Chiang Mai, 100-101 F, with humidity between 35 and
78 per cent. The pollution level is down, but still bad, and there is the
haze. My prayer is that any of you reading this will only visit my beloved
city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand (Lanna) in the months of October
through December when it is so lovely, cool. And if you ever have the chance
to come on the November full moon for the wonderful festival of Loy
Khrathong, I guarantee you a "personal miracle" under a full-moon sky
studded with hundreds of six-foot tall flaming lanterns and the River Ping
gloriously bedecked with thousands of little "floats" (the khratongs) made
of geometric arrangments of banana leaves, flowers, incense, and candles.

After crawling out of my air-conditioned computer/study/music room about 3PM
went for my 12th. 200 rad treatment. On the way home decided to "pretend" I
wasn't so weak, and my throat didn't ache so bad and feel like a desert with
a topping of slime, and try a work-out at the fitness center.

My tendency to over-ride weakness or illness in favor of "gut-busting"
workouts is part of my style, but this time I knew better (having finished
the first CarboPlatin IV treatment two days ago). So I mentally forced
myself to do only two sets of weights on various machines with the
resistance set to about half of what I would normally do four sets with. I
monitored my heartbeat and kept it below 125 for safety. While a little
winded ... not having worked out for six weeks ... at no time did I feel
really dizzy or woozy ... would have stopped if I did.

Then a long red-hot sauna. Drank a lot of fresh (when I say fresh : in
Chiang Mai that means hand-squeezed thsi morning from oranges hand-picked
one day before) orange juice, before and during the work-out, and before and
after the sauna. Went out by the pool and elevated my feet and went into
some kind of trance for a while as I wondered at the ability to see the
waxing moon more clearly than I thought I would be able to.

Another half hour or rest after dressing, and I felt stronger than I thought
I would. I didn't have the "passing out" feeings I've been getting lately
when I get up after a few hours of reading or computer programming.

My energy level has stayed good until now (about 1:30AM), although I am, for
the first time, experiencing a little nausea (too much OJ : ghosts of
CarboPlatin rattling my chains ?).

We'll see how this plays out in terms of whether I sleep well, and how my
energy level is tomorrow.

Hope this is useful or, at least, entertaining.

regards, Uncle Sally