Told not to lose weight :(

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Niknak0320
Niknak0320 Member Posts: 138
edited June 2014 in Working on Your Fitness

I'm not a happy camper right now :(  I just finished my treatment and more than one of my doctors have told me not to try to lose weight right now.  They've recommended eating and exercising to maintain my current weight.  This is HUGELY disappointing to me because I was 9 months pregnant with a 6th child at diagnosis...so of course I have more than my fair share of weight to lose now!  Especially after hearing that I shouldn't get pregnant again - all I want to do is jump start my life back...:(

Thank God it's winter and I can hide under sweats.  And hopefully in July when I get my DIEP I will drop some weight.

Sorry for the vent...just wondereing if I am in the only one in this position?  And if some of you gals are in the same spot, how are you coping with it?

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  • infohh
    infohh Member Posts: 71
    edited January 2010

    Hi Nikki

    Congratulations on finishing treatment, now you can enjoy the baby and all the kids.  I do not know if you had chemo, but it had pushed me into menopose, needless to say , I have gained 14 pounds.  I do not stop trying to drop back to normal, I had never had a weight problem befor. 

    Fat is not good since you are ER+ and I think the doctors gave you good advice.  My new year resolution is to walk daily and eat a lot of veggies.

    GOOD LUCK

    HH

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  • CarynRose
    CarynRose Member Posts: 149
    edited January 2010

    Nikki,

     I can imagine how frustrating it must be.  You are in treatment now and you should concentrate on that. Make sure you eat healthfully and when you are finished with treatment, you will be stronger, and able to lose the baby and the cancer weight.

    I gained a lot of weight from the steroids I was on.  Once we weaned me off them, I just didn't have an appetite.  I made sure that I ate the proper diet, just less.  Even though I was 246 pounds, I wasn't caring about my weight.  And yet, eating what and when my body told me to, I gradually dropped weight and now I'm 195.  Treatment is over now, and my goal is now to get down to 165.

    I guess the bottom line is to be patient and take it one step at a time, one day at a time.

     All the best,

    Caryn

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  • Niknak0320
    Niknak0320 Member Posts: 138
    edited January 2010

    Thank Caryn :)  

    I was a surrogate mother so the baby is not mine to enjoy :)  But I talk to them regularly and she is growing like a weed!

    I have been doing 30-45 minutes at the gym 2-3 times a week to start.  It's better than nothing!  But I am frustrated to not be able to have a goal of seeing the pounds drop...it's like breast cancer still has me in this huge holding pattern :(

    On the plus side....the PS told me that he should be able to give me a set of full C's with DIEP and I certainly don't want anything smaller so losing belly probably isn't a good idea right now LOL!

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  • kimikins
    kimikins Member Posts: 3
    edited January 2010

    I was given the same direction after finishing chemo, during radiation etc. I could exercise but told not to diet and to not lose belly fat or else they might have to do a reduction on the other side.  Basically my plastic surgeon wanted to make sure I had enough fat for my diep surgery.  I had gained 15 pounds (and am 25 pounds above where I want to be) but then when I went in for a unilateral reconstruction  (1/7) he wasn't sure he could match my other C cup breast.  He ended up doing a good job and it seems like I won't need any work done on the other side. He did end up taking a little bit of the muscle.   He needed to take some of the muscle (postage-stamp size) rather than digging out the blood vessel and artery because it made for a more stable transplant and blood supply.  I hadn't realized but when they do a diep they only like to use 65% or less of the removed tissue (to ensure that the blood supply will be sufficient).,

    So I agree with folks who say you should try and exercise and eat healthy in preparation of the surgery but you may need all the tissue even if it feels like a lot.  My recovery has been much easier than I thought - and I've been walking and eager to start doing more exercise after another month or so.

    Good luck. 

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  • Sassa
    Sassa Member Posts: 1,588
    edited February 2010

    Nikna,

    When I checking into my options for delayed reconstruction, I was also told not to lose any more weight if I wanted to have any type of reconstruction using my belly fat.  At that point I had about 30 pounds to go.

    I was than faced with the dilemma of using my belly fat for the reconstruction and then losing to get to a healthy weight.  The problem came in that since my new breasts would consist of my body fat, weight loss would cause them to shrink as I I lost weight.  I could very well go through the pain of the flap surgeries (the plastic surgeons I spoke to were very up front in telling me that most women with reconstructions done with belly fat feel like they are recovering from a bad auto crash with severe abdominal injuries and complete recovery takes 6 months) and then lose some of the breasts during weight loss.

    In addition, I would be weakening my abdominal area  through loss of muscle tissue.  This would be on top of my muscle loss in my chest area due to a modified radical mastectomy on one side (simple mastectomy on the other side).  I already knew the problems I was having trying to get my upper body in shape with my screwed up chest muscles.  I couldn't imagine adding weakened abdominals to the mix.

    I finally decided to go with bilateral implants and do not need to worry about losing the fatty "breast" tissue as I diet. 

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