Breast Cancer, reconstruction and riding

Best of luck to your wife and family!

Hope everything works out ok.

Hey Chief, Sorry to hear what your wife/you-family going through. I have some advice. First if you have not talked to your surgeon and/or medical oncologist you should bring this stuff up with them. Questions about work / activity come up all the time and if they know about what type of riding she is wanting to do they should be able to offer advice, especially relative to what chemo / type of surgery she is receiving. See what they think about these questions. Also check out the American Cancer Society website. You can use this website to connect with other patients and chances will be can find others to talk about experiences with breast cancer and trying to stay active/etc.
Hopefully will get thoughtful/compassionate advice from these sources. If not then post again or pm me and I can probably help you get in touch with those that will.

Wow. This certainly puts many things we discuss on this forum in thier proper perspective.

My hat is off to you and your family for all your courage and perserverance.

Here is our story. My wife is now 50 and is not a snowmobiler or athlete of any kind. She a U of M profesor and is most comfortable when surrounded by her text books. She and I passed on the lumpectomy and radiation and had a single mastectomy about 4 years ago. It sounds extreme but at that time we discussed the possibility of doing the double mastectomy. Sometimes we still wonder if we made the right decision.

We discussed reconstruction and even saw the plastic surgeon to begin the process. Our initial intention was to proceed with reconstruction. This is a tremendously personal decision for husband and wife with a boat load of factors to carefully consider but over time we just found ourselves saying the hell with it and just packed it in. My wife wears the prostethis for cosmetic reasons. We dont regret we passed on reconstruction. In fact, the door remains open for us to do that at any time. I often joke about "the fake one" which most of the time gets a laugh out of her.

For us it came down to being tired of chemo, surgery and doctors and just wanted to move on. We felt that reconstruction extended a process we had grown tired of. Sounds strange but we have also found passing on reconstruction has had no impact on intimacy. I think the most important thing is that we were in agreement on our decisions which unified us going forward regardless of the outcome.

So not having gone with reconstruction I can't tell you what our recovery experience was but had we gone ahead with reconstruction I would have completely relied on the docs advice for jumping back in to activities like sledding. My feeling would be that you have a lifetime to sled but only one shot at proper rest and recovery. If i had to miss a second season of sledding so be it. No biggie. If you cant promiss her a ride this season maybe a new sled for next season gets it done .

What ever you decide I wish you the very best. My hope is that in my lifetime I will see a cure to cancer. Good luck to you and your family.

GO NAVY.

Hey Rich,
Glad to hear all went well and like already mentioned, healing is #1 right now. Sleds and mountains will wait for you two. I lost my mother to breast cancer when I was 16 so every survivor story I hear about is a huge victory in my eyes. I could ramble on but I'll just say take your time and allow her to do what she can as she can and follow doctors advice.:face-icon-small-win

Congrats on her results.
Now prepare for a long life together:heart:

Peace


.

My wife went through the exact same thing and wanted to ride as soon as she could she started out doing light stretching as soon as she could after surgery and worked her way into lifting some very light weights until she felt good enough to ride which was about 8 weeks or so good luck and she will ride again I hope you guys the best.

Hey Chief, Healing from the surgery normally would be pretty good in 8 weeks, starting with light stretching & building up. Brandy had a great idea of taking photos to the docs since most don't have a clue what riding entails. But I think the bigger factor will be the radiation and chemo. Depending on the person and the amount, those two can really take the wind out of your sails as far as energy, especially when we're not as young as we used to be. Still for me, after having faced death, it would be important to do things that made me feel alive.... If you go, just keep in mind the side effects of chemo & radiation & make sure she's got enough stuff to keep her warm and make sure the location is where you can get back to the truck easy as energy can be pretty low.

my brother had cancer.. took the treatments, did the surgery.. and did his best to push the envelope (last was sky diving)... this is our second Christmas without him.

Bottom line I would vist with the surgeon and ask what happens if you go and play... chemo and radiation is a challenge for endurance and for many just feeling like crap. Take all the treatments... pray for the best... and live life on the edge as no one knows when his or her time runs out here on this earth

I am going through this scenario (Stage 2 breast cancer) as I read this.... :brokenheart: I opted for a lumpectomy and radiation, I ended up having 2 surgeries and tons of tests. I finished radiation 5 weeks ago and started my Chemo 3 weeks ago. Just a few days after starting the chemo they found a tumor on my right ovaries it ended up being benign but have some other issues going on that need to be taken care of.

I rode over Thanksgiving and it was so uplifting to be out in the snow and not have to think about the "cancer". Every time I hit the snow and it ran over my hood I cried, the thought of missing that scares me to death. Sledding is my passion and it makes me smile. Some people like to go to Mexico or Hawaii.... not me, I'd rather be shredding in 2 footy of fresh any day.. :heart:

My doctor gave me the go ahead to ride, of course he has no idea how I ride, but gave me the thumbs up to push myself. I am an active 44 year old and I think if your wife is able to get out even for a bit it would be good. I understand as a husband you want the best and to protect her but we as fighters and survivors need the release, or I call it therapy :face-icon-small-hap Let her gauge her physical strength and if the doctor gives her the thumbs up take her even if for a trail ride. She may end up feeling so much better and have something to smile about. We tend to think about alot of bad scenarios when your told you have the "c" word. This could be a short time she can forget she is going through so much, I know I did.. :heart:

I hope this helps, it is my perspective. I am a survivor and so is she..... Cancer free since August 2nd 2011 :heart:

Hi there. I appreciated reading your post, as it really demonstrates your love, concern, and support for your wife. I am a nurse that has seen post mastectomy reconstruction done. There are a few things you need to consider when riding after any surgery. Firstly, how much muscle involvement was there in the mastectomy? If muscle has been removed or rebuilt, there is, of course, more risk for damaging the repair when using the chest muscles during riding. If 'only' (and I don't mean that lightly by any stretch) breast tissue was removed, risks are lower. However, tissue expanders are usually inserted under at least part of the pectoral muscle, which involves cutting the muscle and sewing in a type of biological graft to form a pocket for the implant. The bouncing and jarring we experience while riding can cause the pocket to tear and the implant to shift. I can not stress enough the importance of good supportive undergarments. Most women have to wear sports bras to ride anyhow, so your wife should be very conscious of how much bouncing is going on during the ride. Also, if you do a lot of off trail riding, there is, as I'm sure you know, the risk of her hitting a hidden obstacle and getting thrown in to the handlebars. An armor vest would probably not be a bad idea to help minimize the chances of an implant getting popped. Having said all of that, I admire her readiness to get out and experience the joy of riding again! I've had several loved ones fight battles with cancer, and that zest for life is really important to encourage, and humbling to be exposed to. Your wife sounds like a fighter, and you sound like a great support to her. I wish you both all the best, and happy, safe, riding!

Chief-

Saw your currently status. And I feel that is a very common place for people to be during a process like this. I personally haven't had any family members go through breast cancer, but my time in the oncology wards as a medical student taught me a few things.

Any time you have surgery or chemo, your body senses it as stress. Even minor cuts are detected as stress. This releases massive amounts of cortisol (bodies natural steroid) that decreases the bodies response to all forms of infection and raises the blood sugar levels. In other words, because bugs love sugar too, this is a great environment for them to grow in. That is why you gives antibiotics pre/during/post-surgery and until you feel a patient has recovered to a level where they can again respond on their own. To top it off, chemo is nasty to the production of white blood cells (again, natural defense). Basically chemo is a poison for cells growing in a certain pattern. If it is a fast growing cancer, drugs are given to stop rapidly dividing cells. This includes the gut, skin, and bone marrow (where white blood cells grow) as side effects. If it is slow growing, we fight it with drugs that attack the DNA patterns or cell division itself. Again, this is all a very well calculated risk.

Natural responses to an insult are partially believed to be for a decreased self-immune response to an injury. In the case of surgery and diseases such as cancer that can make treatment a bit more tricky, but your doctor and care team knows this. I hope that if you have any questions the care team spends ample time helping you understand what is coming next and the 'whys' of right now.

For now, be her strength. And find someone to be yours. This is a battle, and everyone needs someone to listen. Even if it is just once. Remember that if you aren't strong, it is harder to be strong for her.

All the best, and I have all my fingers and toes crossed for a successful recovery.

-T

Chief said:

Chemo has been delayed by infection.

She had surgery last Thursday to clean out the infection; we'll know by the 17th if this has worked or if further surgery will be required.

We still hold out hope that she will be in remission and reconstruction will be complete by Christmas.

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Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear about the infection. Stay strong.... you both will come through this. :heart:

Hoping that all is going well for you and your wife! :face-icon-small-hap

Yes I hope she is doing well!

Chief said:

Today it looks like she's beating the infection so we're holding onto hope.

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How about an update?