Thursday 8/25/11
Back to physical therapy, in all honesty Tuesdays’ session left me feeling pretty sore, definitely a necessary evil at this point. As my sister empathetically reminded me ... “no pain no gain.” For those of you who have never been to physical therapy you may not know this but the therapists are probably the nicest people and very positive about progress and the therapy. I spend the time at the session learning the “right way” to do something, requiring correction along the way.
Today my therapist spent time explaining what muscles I am targeting and she says I had the best form I had ever had ... almost like I had a “light bulb moment” I understood something better. I said the reason was that she was finally a little harsher with me ... her approach is too sweet and I require a little abuse. She laughed ... and said she would keep that in mind ... but I doubt that she will, I am sure she will be just as sweet when I go back next week. One thing I have learned in physical therapy is that I have a lifetime of bad habits to undo. For example, I have tight shoulders, she is constantly telling me to “drop” my shoulders. In looking back at old marathon photos I realize that I have always had tight shoulders, they are always high. I told her this and she said it is because other muscles are week and my shoulders tighten to compensate... go figure. Just another way cancer and the treatment thereof is making my life better.
I left todays‘ session with my muscles feeling just as tired as I did earlier this week or maybe even a little more. As the day progressed I had a hard time lifting my arms ... reminded me of the HART workouts where we focus on arm (pushups and pull ups galore).
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| Picture of me (you can see the tightness in my left arm - starts below my armpit where my lymph node was removed and progresses through my arm) |
So what about treatment?
I received a phone call from my radiation oncologist. As I recently reported my radiation has been delayed and todays’ phone call was about discussing when radiation might begin. I am several expansions away from my desired size (current size 330 ccs and goal is 450 / 500 ccs). My radiation oncologist said that his standard is to start at most 3 months after surgery (for me 3 months is 9/13/11). Therefore, I still have some time to continue expanding. The plan is that I will continue to work with my plastic surgeon on expanding and let my radiation oncologist know when I am ready to start radiation. So for now I will focus on gaining strength in physical therapy, expanding my tissue and regaining endurance until radiation begins.
Tuesday 8/23/11
Another session of physical therapy and I am noticing that my arm is still very tight at the top of my range (when my arm is fully extended). I think this is because of the missing tissue under my arm (where my lymph nodes were removed I have a chunk of tissue missing).
At this time my therapist is introducing more and more strength training. I continue to stretch, both in the session and at home, but my sessions are focusing more on increasing the use of weights and strength. During the short visits I feel like I am getting quite the workout.
Monday 8/22/11
Matt was traveling today and I had a few errands to run amongst them a haircut. I stopped at the mall to see Manny (my stylist). He was fabulous as always -- cleaned up around my ears and my neck. I am very excited that my hair is starting to fill in and excited to report that I have a fun haircut planned as soon as length permits ... more to come on that later.
Sunday 8/21/11
Today was a big run day. Matt and I planned that today was a good day for a longer run, my first time over 3 miles, 2 loops around the park which is just shy of 6 miles. We got started around 8 am (which is a little late for a long run), it was hot but tolerable. The first mile hurts the most ... mostly my incisions. But after the first mile I am reminded that everything else hurts; my feet, my legs, my lungs, the list goes on and on. For my first long run it was great, but just as you would expect I napped later that day (after eating and showering).
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| Me at the park after my first long run since surgery (sweaty everything) |
Saturday 8/20/11
A couple of my neighbors ordered jewels from the recent party and we decided to have lunch together and coordinate for the exchange of jewels. It was a lot of fun and lunch ended up taking a few hours. We sat and chatted for quite a long time - catching up on basically everything. But socializing can be tiring and I came home and took a nap. The rest of the day was fairly relaxed.
Friday 8/19/11
I received the jewels from the party I recently had and I have to admit it was so fun opening the package of jewels and sorting them. I notified all my party peeps that their orders had arrived. Your deliveries are on their way girls :)
Thursday 8/18/11
Today was another physical therapy day. I have been working hard to regain my flexibility. My physical therapist has started to introduce weights in my training program. I am continually astonished at how awesome physical therapy and therapists are.
Today I went to see my plastic surgeon. It is no secret that I have a lot of doctors and in all honesty I have found my current situation to be the most challenging. I have a plastic surgeon, with whom I have been working since surgery and a radiation oncologist who I have also been working with since surgery. At this time these two doctors are working together on my care. The summer has posed a new set of challenges, namely my plastic surgeon going on vacation. My plastic surgeon has been on vacation more then anyone I know this summer. In my opinion the vacation schedule has created a new set of barriers / issues in my care / treatment program.
During my last visit to the plastic surgeon, she sent me to start radiation and this didn’t happen (because I later learned that my breasts should be expanded to their final size at the time of radiation). Today was the first visit with my plastic surgeon since that decision.
Probably one word that best describes my visit with the plastic surgeon today; “clarifying”. I clarified my goal breast size with my doctor.
I “clarified” that we had not had this discussion prior to today (sadly - this is very late in the game). She “clarified” that expanding radiated tissue will be challenging if not impossible. Given this information, I explained that I would rather wait to reach the right size prior to radiation instead of rushing for the sake of rushing.
I was and am overall very disappointed with my plastic surgeons’ lack of knowledge about my situation, needs and interests.
After our length conversation my plastic surgeon expanded my breasts (adding 180 ccs) from 150 ccs in each breast, increasing my size to 330 ccs in each breast (bra size is less then a full B). It was a completely crazy feeling to go from a practically flat chest to having breasts in a couple minutes. I would like to reach 450 to 500 ccs (my plastic surgeon says it will take a month to get there). Future expansion will not be 180 ccs because it gets more challenging and uncomfortable to expand as breasts increase in size.
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| Bottle to show how much saline in liquid form 1 cc = 1 ml (150 is how much I started at, 330 is where I am now and 500 is my goal) 500 is a little over 16 ounces |
Matt and I left the plastic surgeons’ office with that feeling of disappointment, but having come to an agreement that I follow up with my radiation oncologist I felt that I won the battle, I felt I deserved a treat ... a coffee maybe. Matt then said, I deserved a beer. We decided to go out to dinner at Spaghetti Western.
I ordered a calzone and it came to the table and it was huge (bigger then my plate). As soon as it arrived Matt said, “If you eat this entire calzone I will pay you $500”. Seriously ... “Challenge Accepted”. I ate the entire calzone!
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| Spaghetti Western Calzone ... Yum |
Stay tuned for more SuperMonkey Adventures,
Nancy
AKA: SuperMonkey
“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
- Mark Twain
