Let me add my own welcome to the other, James, along with my best wishes for an easy trip through this exercise.

I was delighted to read that you work out now, please get started as soon as you are able to resume working out. I have had a couple of recurrences (distant metasteses, which put me in Stage IVc) and (to my MO's astonishment) never missed a day in the gym while going through the subsequent treatments. He said that in over 20 years of practicing oncology, he'd never had a patient that could use "chemo" and "working out" in the same sentence before.

My first treatments, however, with Cisplatin were another story, I had a mediport and couldn't workout for the next 6 months, and the Cisplatin made me nauseated for 90 days. I could only keep one bottle of 350 cal Ensure + down, everything else came right up, and I lost 38 lbs, going from a very solid 192 to 154.

Nonetheless, the MO agrees with me today, that working out hard while taking chemo (which elevates the metabolism) speeds the poisons through the system and makes the process much easier to bear. I have evidence that it also speeds the excretion from the system.

At any rate, by second round of treatments, a year and a half after the first remission, I got 7 4 week cycles of Carboplatin w/Taxol (changed to Taxetere after the first 3, after I reported some further hearing loss) and had no adverse reaction beyond the hearing loss.

This brings up another point, be very vigilant for neuropathy, especially any tingling or numbness in the finger tips or toes. Neuropathy is usually permanent, and the way it can affect your feet can make you miserable. So report it ASAP if you experience it. Or tinnitis. Talk with your MO for a full list of symptoms of neuropathy.

Good luck, Jim. And since you're already in good shape physically, you may have an easier time of it than you'd otherwise expect. I know I did, and I was 70 when I got diagnosed the first time.

Bart