Rebuilding Strength: Fitness After Breast Cancer Surgery

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Hi Friends!

I hope all has been going well for you this year…literally it has raced by! We are almost at Thanksgiving. Where did 2024 go?

I thought I would give an update of where I am currently with my fitness journey. And what my future goals look like.

On-Going Staged Reconstruction after breast cancer

October 2024. I still have one more surgery to go for the other implant, but all is good and I am back to working out, not as heavy lifting but each week I get stronger. Pic by Alexandra Ghisays.

As you may know if you read my posts, read the first one here – the second one here, & the final one here – I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, in April 2023. Thankfully I caught it early (I have always been very on top of getting mammograms every year) and it was diagnosed as hormone receptor positive, node negative (the node negative part was not known until after my double mastectomy that it had not traveled to my lymph nodes) & so I had initially decided right away after finding out, that I wanted to have a double mastectomy after reading up about the possibility of the “return rate” in the other breast. That was my own action. My surgeon thought that was the best recourse, and he also suggested staged reconstruction which would involve ‘tissue expanders’ at first, and then the final step would be the implant exchange surgery. We had some setbacks for this plan throughout 2023 as the right side (side where lump was) gave continuous skin healing problems, showing signs of “necrosis” with the tissue expander there. However after a long back and forth we chose to take it out altogether at the end of October and start back on the right side in 2024.

Implant Exchange Surgery – June 2024

After my surgeon who was my plastic surgeon for the implant surgery was confident that both sides were ready to “go” and fully healed – we set a date for June 11th, 2024 to exchange the expander for an implant on the left side, and put back the expander in the right side (which was now fully healed – meaning the skin.) – All went well!

Choosing a smaller, rather than larger implant at 225 CC’s

I now have a little more than a B+ cup size which is what I had many years ago before I lost some weight over the years. We discussed a larger sized implant but Doc thought due to my small stature ( 5 ft 1 1/2 inches, 102-105 pounds usually) it may not be a good match…he would see what worked during the surgery. Right after I was wheeled into the recovery room I immediately noticed that there was literally NO pain on the the implant side, but alot on the side where the expander was put in on the right side…so I literally started all over again in terms of my own physio exercises to raise my right arm up and down, and so forth! This I am still doing, each day. To even lift a dumbbell on that side is still hard, but I am pushing through!

Doc gave me the “green light” to start walking around my neighborhood again two weeks after as at my check ups all was going very well. And then a month after he gave me the ultimate green light – to get back to the gym, starting back slowly with the weights! He asked me to focus on legs at first, then lower weight dumbbells, and to stay away from doing exercises involving the chest for a little longer – albeit I decided to do over the muscle implants and I can explain all of this and why I did in the next post!

Getting back to the Gym, August 2024

Slowly, but surely getting back to the physique I had before my breast cancer diagnosis in 2023. It takes time to build back the muscle – sometimes years, but I will have muscle memory as I have been lifting for ten years now.

Finally, after annoying my very patient Doctor literally via regular whatsapp messages about the possibility of lifting heavier (as my upper body had lost some muscle, which was bound to happen in the past year and a half!) he gave me permission to lift heavier but not too heavy. As a Fitness Professional of course I knew exactly what this meant and followed his guidance. I was anxious to get back to working out my shoulders, delts, biceps and triceps. Being a past bikini competitor these are areas that the judges look at for upper body, and also help to create & sculpt the type of physique for competing in this category. It is a known fact that I have spoken about my dream about wanting to compete overseas in the masters bikini category again, and really hoping to do this next year (2025.)

My workouts have not been anywhere near what they used to be before having had the double mastectomy. The stops and starts have not helped after each surgery and procedure I have had since June 2023. It has been hectic, but one thing that has kept me going is exercise. Both for my own mental health and physical well being. I will soon be recording my workouts and linking them here and on instagram, if you do not follow me there, here is the link!

The Future

My future goals for health and wellness are the same ones I had before:

  • To teach women especially women who have gone through menopause, how to stay lean via healthy eating and working out in an effective way that does not involve crazy boot camp style regimes!
  • Balance, and moderation helps in general, so you still enjoy the things you love! My plan keeps those things in place, so you do not feel a sense of loss, yet it is also a plan that realistically sets boundaries for very unhealthy foods.
  • The correct knowledge of macro-nutrients and what “macros” will work for you day to day, is also a HUGE game changer. Do you know how much Protein you need per day for your body weight in terms of grams? This is part of what I will teach.
  • What works to build muscle. What works to lose body fat %? I have been lifting weights now for ten years and have not looked back. I have never had to be on a diet and do not starve, or miss meals. In fact some people may even see me as eating on the healthy side…yet I know what works for my physique in trying to obtain a leaner muscle mass and healthy body fat % when not in training.

Coaching!

My goal in 2025 is to become a licensed health and wellness Coach so that I can help with viable programs of workouts and meal prep. I have been certified in fitness and that of course helps, but the more I know, the better I can be to help my clients. Stay tuned for this. Despite the setbacks, I look forward to the new way forward and that will mean that days are spent managing my new Company (that is another post!) which is a digital marketing company in partnership with a marketing company, and putting together my fitness coaching programs. I want to show women especially that a life of health is not hard to achieve, and a daily balance of good food, macro friendly, with fabulous workouts in the gym or out of the gym (my programs will cover both.)

My Special Message for October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month

My special message to all the ladies I know, and do not know – is to please get your annual mammograms. If you feel something is “off” then make sure no matter what, your Doctor gets you an appointment for a mammogram. This saved me.

STAY TUNED!

Love,

Neenie xo

How 2023 is going, after a huge health shock – Part one

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Hi Friends,

It has been awhile since I have written here, and I thought it is time to get back to writing and keeping this platform updated.

I had high hopes for this year. I set myself up for a huge fall with that way of thinking. Not saying you should not have high hopes as each year starts…but maybe I was too caught up in the fact that I wanted to “will” the pandemic finished and to start fresh.

Oh boy was I in for a shock!

The year started out on a depressing and sad note when my beloved step-dad passed away just before New Year’s Eve. He had been diagnosed with mouth cancer about five months before he passed. When I visited him in September 2022, he was uncomfortable but getting better. He had finished his radiation and albeit, he could not eat much – he was starting to taste things and even requested I cook him some nice “beef mince and rice” on the last evening I was there. I was not able to get back to see him, and put it in my head that he was getting better. Next thing, he was in the hospital and on his way out. I will never forget him, everything he did for me and all the years I visited him in Wellington, West Palm Beach at his peaceful and welcoming home.

My Step Father, Rudi and I

He is the reason I studied hotel management, the reason I could make a really good martini, and the reason why I became a “foodie!” – he taught me so much, including the way that humility gets you far.

I realized that the year had not started out very well, and I was in mourning. I tried to get myself back to the gym, and to go out as much as possible as the more I sat around the house on the weekend is the more depressed I became.

Cut to March. I realized that there had been a strange feeling in my right breast for a few months. Not only that, but it was actually seemingly changing shape. I am someone who goes for a mammogram (and ultrasound) almost every year, and the last one in 2022 was normal. There was a lump – but it was apparently “benign.” So if I felt anything I would put it to the back of my head thinking “oh he, the Doctor said not to worry, it is benign, no sign of cancer, stop worrying.” Not only did he say that to me, but he was conducting an ultrasound on a new modern machine when he said it. The report reiterated the same…so off I went, happily living my life.

Until February and then March…when things just did not look or feel “right.” I cannot even put it fully into words, except I know something was wrong!

I went back to the mammogram lab, and jumped past going to the Doctor first, as that would be too time consuming. In my head, I kept reading about more and more young women having breast cancer, so I was not about to ignore certain warnings.

I knew instantly that was there was something not quite right when the mammogram technician started asking me if there was breast cancer in my family. I looked at her like really? She said to sit outside as the Doctor would need to see me and do an ultrasound. My mother was waiting and I said to her, I do not have a good feeling about this. Let’s be prepared.

Lying down on the table getting the ultrasound I was praying hard, but knew something was wrong. The Doctor, a younger one to my regular Mammogram Doctor – said “oh dear, this is something here that does not look right at all.” I immediately sat up and wanted to see it on the large screen. Clearly it really did not look right. I could see the jagged edges around this lump and immediately knew it was cancer. He said what was on my mind “you need a biopsy and fast – let us do it day after tomorrow.” I asked him if they got it wrong the year before. The same lump in the same place. He said NO, this is a new one, I am telling you.

This made me more perplexed. If we are told in our 50’s to do yearly checks, and all was good a year ago, what the hell is this new one? All of these thought went bolting through my head….why…where….what did they miss?

Part two will cover the Biopsy and how I found out I had breast cancer. And what I have done since April 5th when I found out.

Stay healthy!

Much Love,

Neenie