Thriving through Cancer Treatment - A story of how and what exercise gave me through my fight with Breast Cancer.
This piece was written for Love you Sydney and published in their magazone
Thriving through Cancer Treatment - A story of how and what exercise gave me through my fight with Breast Cancer.
Hi - I’m Siobhan O’Toole, in my 40th year I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer.
So what, makes my story different from the 18K people (men and women) who are diagnosed each year. I was part of an exercise trial and that exercise trial and my prior fitness proved to be so important to how to thrive during treatment and to recover with grace.
I lifted heavier weights at the end of chemo than at the start. I did more than 60 workouts over the 152 days of chemo and walked on average 8900 steps a day. I had something to achieve during chemo. I got green ticks in an app. I achieved something.
So I’m sorry you got cancer but how is this relevant to me?
Firstly, I don’t believe anything I did caused me to get cancer. But exercise prepared me to deal with my fight to survive.
I liken cancer to running a marathon.
You are in shock that you put your name down and committed to be part of some running event. This is diagnosis - What do you mean I’ve got cancer. I have to tell people I have cancer. I have to let go of other commitments. To do this I am going to have to focus...
Then you have to train for the event and run the event. This is treatment. It is a long hard arduous and boring process that no one wants to hear about and no one else can really help you do. You have to put one foot in front of the other. Sometimes give a lift to run up-hill. But most importantly you have to keep pace and keep that evil voice in your head focused on getting this thing done not finding all the valid reasons why you should stop RUNNING NOW…
You get to the last 10 km and you are LIKE FML, why did I ever do this… (this is treatment with all the side effects) you can almost see the finish line.
Finally, you have done the race and you find out that you have an injury. That injury might be permanent it is going to scar. It is going to take a lot more patient clean eating, no drinking to give your body the best option to heal. This is recovery.
Cancer treatment is a marathon not a sprint.
Having exercised pretty much my whole life. I knew how to discipline myself. I knew how sacrifice now will bring me a return. I knew it was TEMPORARY. Exercise provided me resilience and a grit mindset of get it done.
Ok so now what?
One of my core values is fairness. Everybody should have FREE access to exercise, diet and mental health during treatment. We can’t wait for people to break and loose condition to build them back up. That is cray cray. We need Pre-Hab to prevent the need for rehab.
So I have teamed up with doctors to define a pre-hab program for cancer patients. We are raising $25,000 to get the first trial of 20 patients through the program. This program looks at how exercise impacts treatment side effects. I NEVER threw up and with the exception of being hospitalised (I got a cold) I moved every day - it helped me manage fatigue.
You can read about my story and watch a video in pictures here: www.ladysko.org/uplift
We need 250 people to give $100 dollars and then this program will be funded. Donations are tax deductible. Will you be one of the founding peeps?
Here are my key takeaways on Cancer in dot Points:
On Screening
You can get breast screening before 40 if you have maternal history of breast cancer read more here
You can get FREE breast screening post 40 at Breast Screen NSW
You can feel your boobies up EVERY month when you are blessed with the curse. Learn how and love those mama jugs.
Source: https://www.mcgrathfoundation.com.au/about/what-we-do/breast-awareness/
On Doctors:
If you don’t trust your doctor don’t be afraid to fire them. I changed breast surgeons and it changed my entire cancer experience.
If your doctor doesn’t start the meeting with “How are you coping” or something similar - fire them. They are treating a person not a disease.
Tell them what is going on - they have amazing powers to resolve issues, including financial. But they can’t fix what they don’t know and they can’t fix what they don’t have time to fix.
On Exercise:
Exercise in your life develops resilience and the ability to get tough jobs done. Fighting breast cancer was my job in 2018.
Weights bearing exercise 2-3 times a week is necessary. 6 simple exercise done with hand weights at home can maintain and increase bone density.
You will never feel like it … so squash that voice and just do the exercise.
On owning it
NEVER EVER GOOGLE YOUR DIAGNOSIS OR YOUR PROGNOSIS. Doctors are experts. Find a doctor your trust rather than trying to become a keyboard doctor.
I never thought I was going to die or not beat this. This is not positive thinking. It is a mindset. I will survive this.
Accept it and get help. So many strong women are so crap at asking for help and worse at accepting it. Seeing my husband trudge off to work and then come home and cook.
Activate your network & owning communications
My personal preferences is to HEAR ZERO about anyone else’s journey. I found two to three women from my network that guided me through the shock
I created a private facebook group that had 100 stakeholders. This ranged from friends and family across the globe to including key people so that I only had to tell my story once.
I did share pictures of my bald head. It happened. It was bald. I kinda rocked it.
Check your insurance
Do you focus on the extra’s I did. I never checked my base coverage as I didn’t need obstetrics and so far knee joints are ok. 50c a month was the difference between including cancer treatments
Check your income protection and consider if you need trauma insurance. Trauma insurance is paid out on diagnosis. So you can have whatever boobies you like. As a contractor I had savings for rainy days. There is no dress or accessory or outfit that feels better than 3 months savings in the bank.
