Whole Again
James spent time every day adding minutes to his physical therapy. His nutritionist gave him recipes too. Every ounce of James was fighting to get a new routine down. His body was more thin than a month ago. The clothes he had went shopping for at the beginning of August were now to big. A month of little mobility, hospital meals and illness had consumed his cancer laden lean frame and left him thin. But doctors and trainers helped him healthily work toward packing on muscle and weight. Every pound became a small victory to James.
His goal was to put on 2 pounds a week. Regaining his appetite was easy. But stopping himself from over eating now that he liked food and no longer felt pain eating was a struggle. James had seen men and women struggle with food and he caught himself showing signs of an unhealthy relationship with food in the first week. As he was home alone he had caught himself reaching for snacks simply because he was bored and finishing entire bags of starchy snacks like an addict. Then the absence of communication with Genaya when he knew she was back led to a middle of the night binge on more junk. Frustrated with himself he purged the house of all unhealthy snacks and gave them to a neighbor a few houses down the road that had teenagers.
The weeks that followed were easier and the weight he put on was clearly muscle. His lean frame returned in a few weeks. James kept the nutritionist after stopping physical therapy. He took on a personal trainer and worked toward building up the stronger physique of his past. The real test came with his first climb. Only a month before his trip and he tried with a line. He was sweating hard halfway up the manmade wall. But when he got to the top and took his shirt off to wipe the sweat from his brow he realized he was crying. It really felt like he was himself again. James stood up there and yelled while his friends below applauded. He was back.
