Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

I had a bilateral mastectomy.    Pink Shoelaces. See p.s. for the note about them.   It was traumatic. I have not written a whole lot about how emotional the cancer journey has been for me, I tend to keep that kind of thing under wraps. In fact, this is what I wrote 5 years ago Week 21 - Surgery . I don't have any pictures of my scars or the tubes or anything but there are some memories and feelings that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I had steeled myself on the first visit to the oncologist, so even "Stage III" did not make me break down. I took it like a woman. I didn't breakdown when my hair started to fall out or when I stared back at my bald self with no eyebrows nor eyelashes. I didn't collapse under the weight of the chemo and what it did to me, but I'll tell you what broke me: The first time I unwrapped those bandages and looked at myself, and looked at the scars and the hollowed out spaces in my chest and the draini...

Last week was a very busy week - I had follow ups with my oncologist, surgeon, radiation oncologist and I had my first physical therapy session. But first, the surgeon. So what did they find? The surgeon decided to remove 4 lymph nodes, all of which tested negative for cancer - a tremendous relief for us. This is significant. As had been seen in the MRI, the pathology confirmed the shrinkage of the tumour and the surgeon had clear margins (that is, no cancer around the excision site). All good. The surgeon said everything was healing up quite nicely and at the appointment removed my drains. (After surgery, the surgeon leaves tubes attached to the surgery site that drain into plastic containers shaped like grenades. It drains lymphatic fluid and prevents infection.) The care and management of those drains (I had 4), while not painful in themselves was a very big hassle. The process of checking the drains, changing dressings, wrapping bandages etc., all without having the kids s...