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Re: [RC] Riding after a mastectomy? - Laney HumphreyWhat a wonderful sister you are, Suzi! There are lots of us cancer survivors out there riding so, Jeanne, tell your riding buddy that even a mastectomy isn't the end of the world as she knows it. Suzi's sister did good by doing her exercises to counteract the scarring. I had 2 lumpectomies plus chemo & radiation. I found getting into a support group very helpful at first. But then, my family, friends and horses took over the support job. Each person heals at their own pace. Her body will tell her when she is ready for riding. But the worst is to sit back and do nothing. Best to keep up the regular routine as much as possible. If she has chemo & radiation, she'll be tired, but what the heck. I never stopped working and I still had kids at home & was a single mom. Having stuff to do kept my spirits up and gave me something outside myself to focus on.Best of luck to your friend! laney Suzi Maiorisi wrote: 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.... =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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