Exercise - Working Back to it After or During Treatment

Hi grit girl,



I USED to be active, then surgery.

I was given the clearance to start walking...but before I could get my sneakers on I had two ingrown toenails to deal with! (And I HATE sandals, they always cut my feet!)



Today I got clearance to wear my sneakers, but can't go out in the sun, because the dermatologist is treating me with chemo cream, my face is awful and the sun will make it worse. I will try and get out for a walk when the sun is going down, but the kids are home by then and it's a madhouse! Lol. Still no excuse though!



So, I am sort of In The same boat?

Next week I should get clearance from plastic surgeon to start exercise, then I will start chemo in 5 days.



after chemo is done the DIEP surgeon wants me in shape to do my masectomy and reconstruction within 4 weeks!



I think I am seeing a pattern here! Don't know exactly when I will be "in shape", but every little bit helps.



I have not checked on the daily exercise thread, but don't be intimated by them. I'm sure they can give you some great info. Just like any other board, take what you can get out of it and ignore the rest. One day someone will be envious of you!



Baby steps for now. Big steps soon!

Wishing you all the best in your endeavor.

Pat

gritgirl - I started attending a program at the YMCA that is run on a grant from Livestrong - it is a "baby-stepping" exercise program specifically for people who have, or have had, cancer of all different types.  I have stopped and started this program twice - I started it during chemo but swelled like balloon and developed severe axillary web syndrome and lymphedema, so had to stop.  I received PT and got that under control, so I went back and they restarted my clock, which was very nice of them.  I started back, then had fat-grafting surgery was was caught by surprise when my PS said no exercise except for walking for 8 weeks.  So this time I just paused, and then returned.  This is a completely free 12-week program, with full access to the Y.  I looked to see if there is a program in the D.C. area, but it seems there is not one near you.  Basically what the trainer does is set up stations and we rotate through them.  She is working on stregthening all body parts, but a lot of what we do could be done at home with a set of steps, an exercise ball, some light hand weights and some stretchy bands.  I went to Play It Again Sports (gently used sports equipment) and picked up some things to use at home, and got the stretchy bands from my LE therapist.  The big exercise balls are usually pretty cheap at places like TJ Maxx or Marshalls.  We spend about a minute rotating through a variety of stations such as bicep curls with the light hand weights, then looping the stretchy band around a pole and pulling toward yourself, jumping back and forth over a broomstick, stepping onto a stair and back down, alternating legs, sitting on the ball and lifting the handweights over our heads - you get the idea.  As long as the duration is short and the weights are light we can all get through it pretty well.  Does this sound like something good for you? 

gritgirl - I feel you on the upper body work - you can see from my sig line that I have had a lot of surgery - and I do have LE in the right (dominant) arm.  Weirdly, my left is the challenged one as 7 out of 8 surgeries were on that side.  I use very light weight, like 2 lbs., more as a stretching function as I am very tight across the chest and my arms are like noodles, lol! - ditto on the stretchy bands - more stretching, and possibly toning, than that much muscle stregthening at this point.  They also do a gentle yoga (or chair yoga I believe they call it) in conjunction with Livestrong.  Nice because it really does stretch without having to put your body weight on your arms.  Maybe one of your local yoga studios has a program for recovery that is similar?  For the lower body we have done squats using the big exercise ball by putting it between yourself and the wall at your back and rolling it up and down the wall, definitely felt it in my legs the next day.  Also, standing and bringing your knee up to waist height and holding it while balancing on the other leg - hold for counts of ten, alternating until you reach a minute.  Today we did controlled donkey kicks while stabilizing by holding a rail.  Low intensity, but with consistency, seems to be the key to making progress and not becoming frustrated.  I have received PT at Moffitt Cancer Center here and I know they have a free yoga class, maybe Lombardi or GW has one?  I am doing a Her2+ vaccine trial in D.C. at Sibley, don't know if the oncology department there has anything, or if the nurse coordinator knows of anything - I can shoot her an email if you would like me to ask.

gritgirl - my philosophy is that anything is something, right?  I spent the day being x-rayed - looking at the possibility of some knee surgery - yay!  I am not even sure how I hurt it but I am totally aggravated that my baby steps may be having a set-back, lol!  I need to book a plane ticket for the June trip, it will be here before I know it.  I enjoy coming up - still have a lot of friends in the area and my son lives in Loudon County.  I moved down to Florida 7 years ago so I miss everyone up there!

odie - that is so nice - encouragement is sometimes needed!

Hi Gritgirl and others! I too was intimidated by other thread so thanks so much for starting this one!

Up until recently (last week had exchange surgery), I was just getting into exercising: my cancer center offers free wellness yoga/Pilates (very gentle) on Fridays and so I scheduled my PT sessions right after. Doing well with PT exercises, one of the last sessions they started me with weights (only 1 pound) but that was killer). Also, very lucky a local yoga center offers free restorative/wellness yoga classes weekly, have a stationary bicycle in the house, and live in a hilly area so I can walk with varying degrees of incline. Right now, not up to much, still recovering and Percocet leaves me too dizzy to venture far from my recliner. Will appreciate encouragement once my PS says I can return to physical activity.

i wentback to gym thursday. got on the eliptical for two ten min sessions. and did some

stretching.

Went to the ortho yesterday for the consult, had static x-rays done last week.  They want to take a cautious approach (yay!) so we started with a cortisone injection into the knee.  Reminded me of a saline fill to the expander but I could feel it a lot more!  They also injected lidocaine internally so at least the pain has stopped.  I can resume some mild exercise at the end of the week - walking, etc. - but the docs (yes, two of them!) said make friends with the elliptical machine and no running.  They also said that they can inject a lubricant into the knee if it stays pain-free but feels a little crunchy - those were not their exact words, they used doctor-speak, lol!  So, I am happy that they did not want to rush into the OR to fix this.  I had a chance to look at my bones and was pretty happy - a little arthritis on the kneecaps, but the joints looked good.  I was fearful that this was being exacerbated by Arimidex, but that does not appear to be the case.  I need to stay on an AI due to a 96% ER+, so that was also good news.  But get this, I have a trigger toe in addition to my trigger thumb and finger!

Grit - after reading your post, I looked over some of my recent posts in the Exercise thread, and do you know what?  I realize that 5 years ago I would have been horribly intimidated by my own posts!    Geez, who is that woman, I would have wondered.  I never would have thought it was possible for me to ever do things like that.  So after thinking about it, I get what you're saying - I would have been way too intimidated to post about my little 5 minutes on the elliptical, even though everyone there would have understood and cheered me on.  

So do keep lurking on the thread, and whenever you're ready to post, we'll be there and waiting to cheer you on!! 

Special K - hopefully the cortisone helps do the trick. Did they send you to any physical therapy to learn exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee to help take the pressure off of it?  Several years ago I had horrible knee pain, and was sure I was off to surgery.  The surgeon I saw said let's start conservative, and sent me for PT.  The PT was great and gave me some simple exercises to do and they were magic.  They really helped and I haven't needed surgery yet.