Re: [RC] Riding after a mastectomy? - Suzi Maiorisi
My sister, and my riding buddy, had a modified radical mastectomy with
extensive lymph node excision for stage IV Breast Cancer in January of
2000. She was 42 at the time. Happy Millennium. She was diligent
about doing her 'wall crawls' with her arm in the shower when warm and wet to
stretch out the tissues and massage it to break down scarring as soon as she
could stand to do it (she's a pretty tough woman, so it was sooner than
most). She is now 5 years out (WOOHOO!) and has had multiple
reconstructions, redoing of reconstructions gone wrong, flap procedure for the
second reconstruction. It's a long process, but with determination and
grit she'll do fine and get through it. She lives on 20 acres with (at the
time) maybe 5-7 horses and having to toss hay, feed bags, etc, was excellent
physical therapy for her - she slowed down minimally, tried to continue doing as
much of her normal activities as possible while going thru chemo and
radiation.
This is also the same woman who did a 20 mile trail ride (no, not LD, so no
time limit) 2 days after gall bladder surgery. My job (as yours will be, I
assume if she's a close friend) was to do everything I could to make sure 'life'
was as normal as possible and that she didn't notice that she couldn't get quite
all of it done because she never ended up exhausted and wondering how she'd ever
get finished because we worked together and kept it from becoming any more
overwhelming than 'new life' was in the first place. My prayers are with
you and your friend...keep providing lots of happy/funny/stupid moments to
reflect on when she's too tired to keep going. Laughter makes all the
world of difference.
This January we did the 110 mile ride with our trail riding group on her 5
year anniversary...on her horse named Pinky, with pink halter, pink pad with
pockets with Pink Ribbons embroidered on them, her in her pink hat and Pink
Ostrich leather jacket...I still cry when I see the pictures and I still want to
scoop her up and have her with me all the time because I know there will come a
time....
My best riding buddy is having a mastectomy next week. Could some
one let me know an approx. time span for being able to get back to riding?
She's pretty young, only 41. This came as quite a shock.
