I've been swimming at my town pool for the past 5 months or so. A woman I met in the locker room asked me if I wanted some coaching. I said "sure", not knowing what I was getting into. It turns out she goes to something called Total Immersion workshops.
Her name is Abby. Abby has 4 women that she's coaching now. She's taught me all of the drills associated with this special method of swimming, and now I'm incorporating them into my stroke. What great fun. Getting up at 6 AM to go swimming isn't easy, but once I get to the pool, it's like being in a playground for grown-ups. There's so much of a sense of frolic in swimming.
I learned how to go naked in the locker room with my tissue expanders (hard, inflatable balloons that they surgically put under your skin to expand it. Mine are in my chest wall, where my breasts used to be). I know I really look different, between my tissue expanders and the chemo port that I still have in my upper chest. Somehow I think that being public with my breast cancer warms people up to me. The women in the locker room are so incredibly friendly. Most of them don't stare at all. I remember when I first met Abby, she looked at my chest. That's when I explained to her that I had cancer and lost my breasts.
She's become the best of friends to me. The other day, she sent me e-mail telling me that I was very courageous and an inspiration to her. I felt really good when I read that, but I sent her a reply back explaining that it doesn't take any courage to get cancer, that cancer is really just a way of life (to us survivors -- not to other people, who are filled with preconceived notions about what getting cancer means).
9:44:24 PM 
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