After my surgeries, when I was too sore and stiff to move, a friend told me a story of her Tai Chi teacher who never missed a day of practice, even while hospitalized, because she would practice in her mind. So, I decided to try it with yoga. Unable to even think about stepping on the mat, I’d lie in bed at night and picture myself moving through my practice. I felt my body as it had been before surgery—strong and flexible. In my mind’s eye, I’d see my arms sweep overhead at the beginning of a sun salutation and my body bend forward gracefully as I touched the floor. Arms flexing, they supported me as I jumped back into a plank position. My back was supple, my chest expansive as I glided into upward-facing dog. In that way, I’d flow through my yoga practice. Imagining the feeling of my limbs working in concert with my trunk, my muscles engaged, my chest open. The best part was that after I’d had these yoga practices in my head as I drifted to sleep—body bruised, swollen, stiff, propped up with a half dozen pillows—I’d often dream of yoga. The line between visualization and dream blurred by handstands.
breast cancer
Picturing Breast Cancer
The loss or disfigurement of one’s breasts to cancer is traumatic. One reason it’s so painful is how visibly the surgery can change the body’s landscape. Once treasured contours are clear-cut in the name of survival. Not wanting to be shocked after surgery, I sought out photos online and in books of women who’d lost their breasts to cancer. In hindsight, I won’t call that time misspent, but I do wish I’d come across David Jay’s SCAR Project earlier.
Exercise Caution
I was inundated with breast cancer literature upon my diagnosis and the dire warnings about lymphedema really freaked me out. A little back story for those of you lucky enough to be clueless about how this stuff works: Most breast cancer surgery involves the removal of at least a handful of lymph nodes. These little nodules of tissue act as waste-removal factories for the circulatory system. In an attempt to rid a patient’s body of as many stray cancer cells as possible, breast cancer surgeons carve out those nodes draining waste directly from the tumor. Sounds good, right? The problem is that any time you mess with the lymph nodes there is a chance that the neighboring nodes will refuse to pick up the slack. If that happens, the system gets backed up and you’re suddenly the proud owner of an unseemly swelling of the affected limb or body part called lymphedema. Even better, it can be permanent, requiring one to don a very unfashionable compression garment to squeeze the bejesus out of said arm. Just what every girl hopes for…one fat limb. Lymphedema is one of breast cancer’s many side show acts. Obviously it’s not the main event. Hello??? You have cancer. Is now really the time to worry about having a fat arm? But, just in case the cancer wasn’t enough to ruin your day, now you get to worry about having one of your arms blow up like a water-logged corpse. Great.
So, the only thing worse than having this happen (or, of course, dying from cancer) is knowing that you brought it on yourself. And this is where the alarm bells in my head really started clanging. Several things I read on the subject informed me that I’d be risking lymphedem post-breast cancer surgery if I was ever foolish enough to lift more than 15 pounds. And by ever, I mean never ever. I mean, seriously. Think about this…no more lifting bags of groceries from the cart to my car, no more picking up my infant niece, no more dragging yard waste around the yard while I weed like a maniac…and the list goes on and on. And, as if that’s not enough of a life sentence, the literature also warns that a woman who is post-breast cancer surgery should never pick up a suitcase with the now useless arm or carry a heavy bag over said shoulder, should she risk the wrath of lymph.
Okay, you’re going to tell me to stop whining about the possibility of backed-up plumbing in my arm when I tell you that my surgeon assured me not to worry. Huh? How can Dr. Feel Good tell me not to sweat it when Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book insisted that I forever coddle my post-surgical arm like an 18-year old chihuahua? Turns out, Dr. Feel Good determined that I had good odds of dodging lymphedema because I’m young and fit. Plus, he only removed six of the little buggers, which was still about five too many for my tastes, but, as it turns out, it’s not out of the ordinary to lose a baker’s dozen or more during breast cancer surgery, which ups the odds of a lymph-drainage breakdown, so I should feel lucky…funny but I don’t. Instead, I’ve suspected the whole “lymphedema thing” was just another means to extricate breast cancer patients from their personal power. Not with any clarity of purpose but by a patriarchal medical establishment that would much rather pat us on the head and say “oh, you sweet thing, don’t lift a finger or you may irreversibly maim yourself” than give us a thwack on the shoulder and say “go live your life to the fullest.” Not to mention, taking the time to actually do the studies to find out whether or not the advice is really correct or just an old surgeon’s tale.
And so all of this tongue-wagging brings me to the reason for my post—a new study that made me smile and send a wave of gratitude to Dr. Feel Good (even if he is a fuck up) and the researchers who decided to test the “fragile arm” theory. Last week the New York Times reported on a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in which researchers found that not only are most doctors too restrictive in their post-surgery advice for breast cancer patients but also that more exercise, not less, may be the best way to ward off lymphedema. Whahoo!!! I’m not going to get into the details of the study or the article because (a) you can read them for yourself and (b) I’m trying to discover the charms of shorter blog entries. But, needless-to-say, I hope breast cancer patients and their doctors warm up to the idea of bulking up those arms because living in fear of lifting more than 15 pounds is no way to live.
The Accidental Vegan
Seems I am always hungry these days.
After being a happy-go-lucky vegetarian for twenty years, on the heels of my breast cancer diagnosis and with the encouragement of several trusted sources, I’ve sworn off dairy, wheat, and sugar. And, given that my cancer is estrogen sensitive, soy may be next. (Even though soy lattés are the only thing saving my sanity at the moment, so you may have to pry them from my cold, dead hands.)
What do I eat? Mostly veggies, nuts, beans, rice, steel cut oats, and a few quixotic grains, such as quinoa.
Of course, I’m hoping to expand that list (soon). Any given day will find me wandering the aisles of my local health food store with a wild look in my eye. I skip sections I used to drool over, like the cheeses and baked goods. Instead, I hover dutifully in the produce aisle and fill my cart with purple kale, lush broccoli, and stumpy carrots. Then I take my greenery for a spin. We ride up and down every aisle hunting for something that will satisfy my gnawing hunger. Last week I discovered a bulk bin full of date bars sprinkled with coconut, and I felt like I’d won the lottery. Sure, they look like cat turds coated in litter, but I devoured them anyway. That’s how desperate I am. Besides, I’m cranky. I’ve got a caffeine headache. And I’m never in the mood to cook anymore.
My predicament is made doubly painful by the fact that I love food. (And, by food, I mean anything that contain sugar, wheat, and dairy.) And, when I say love, I mean LOVE. Food is my hobby. I love to think about it, shop for it, and–once upon a time–cook it. For years I meticulously planned my afternoon outings according to what errand might take me within arm’s distance of a brownie or overpriced coffee drink. Mary laughs because I won’t even go on a dog walk without at least $2 in my pocket in case I stumble across a bakery. If you’d told me six months ago that I’d soon give up every food I held dear, I would have laughed–hard. But then I got breast cancer and things changed. I changed. Funny how once you hear the doctor say, “it’s cancer,” you can’t help but stare at the food perched on the end of your fork and think “did you do this to me?”
Yes, trying to regain control of one’s life with a knife and fork is a cancer cliche. Whatever. Shortly after my diagnosis, I spoke with several breast cancer survivors. Our conversations meandered down the usual paths of diagnostics, surgeries, and treatment protocols. And, near the end of each chat, I’d ask about lifestyle changes. As in, “so, did you change your diet?” Without fail, every woman admitted that, yes, in the throes of the initial scare, she’d raced out to buy “The Juicer.” Then she’d guiltily confess that, after securing a clean bill of health from her oncologist, she ran straight back to her old ways of eating. Sayonara juicer (aka sucker). Once a symbol of health and salvation, the treasured juicer became just another discarded souvenir of her visit to Cancerland…a trip she’d rather forget. Besides, what better way to forget your troubles than with a triple fudge sundae?
Call me a control freak. Call me self-punishing. But I don’t want to forget my trip to Cancerland. How can I forget when I’m tossing back 20 milligrams of Tamoxifen every morning and wondering if the drug will make my uterus implode. Plus, HELLO, if something is going to have an impact on your body wouldn’t it be food…the stuff you’re gobbling by the pound instead of by the milligram? And so I trudge on…steering my cart through a world of temptation, listening to my stomach growl, and, eventually, heading for the cat turds.
Now what?
Life is so weird. Last week, after giving me a get-out-of-chemo-free card, my oncologist wrote me a prescription for Tamoxifen and told me to come back in six months. That was it. End of story. As in, don’t let the door hit you on your way out. Mary and I were giddy as we left his office. We drove home chatty with our good fortune, called our families to share the good news, and took ourselves to a celebratory dinner. Then came Thursday morning. With no doctor’s appointments, no medical errands, no looming surgery to fret about, I vacillated between a profound sense of relief and a disturbing sense of “now what?”
Mary and I both felt the shift and quickly landed on metaphors as different as our personalities. I pictured Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. I felt as though I’d spent the last 10 weeks tossed about in the eye of a tornado. My life turned upside down, shaken, rearranged. Then, a week ago Wednesday, the wind stopped howling, my world stopped spinning, and I dropped back to earth. Now, I’m struggling to get up and dust myself off, but I can’t get my bearings. I’m home, but I’m lost.
Mary, the media scholar, said it was as though her brain was no longer stuck on the “cancer channel.” As if someone had finally handed her the long-lost remote, giving her the freedom to choose her programming again. This past week, as I watched her get sucked back into her hectic work life, a part of me is jealous (something I thought I’d never say) because it feels like she can switch back to her “regularly scheduled programming.” I, on the other hand, have no idea what that looks like anymore.