Peace, Love and Strength

"Really?! I am not shocked but very surprised. I knew you were in great shape before surgery, so I didn't have doubts you would recover quickly. But to be able to lift THAT much this soon is surprising considering all the muscle fibers that have been cut in your chest muscle. You are one of the very few exceptions. Why do I get the feelings you're pushing yourself too much?" Words per my plastic surgeon from my most recent appointment with him. I think it would be very fitting to insert the following words right about now....

Obviously I've been focused on myself emotionally and physically this past month. I believe I finally conquered the soul purpose and process of meditation, in addition to feeling grateful for everything in my life. As hippy as it sounds, my heart is happy, my mind at peace, and I feel filled with an abundance of love. I love this place happiness! It makes day to day life that much easier, however like any other normal person, I still have my moments where I am overly annoyed or just in a bad mood. I've worked really hard to to recognize these moments and turn my thoughts around the best way I can. Some days are a little more tough than others, but more often then not I don't let it continue to bring me down. Where did all this self-work come from you ask? Well a few sources actually! Of course books, meditation, exercise, time away from technological distractors, and other blogs written by warriors like myself. I would like to share one of the blogs I've been following religiously. Fiercely Happy is sincerely written straight from the heart.

On to the nit-and-gritty of my speedy recovery. My oncologist put me on a different hormone medication called Fareston. While it is way more pricer than Tamoxifen, it is so much more compatible with this young body of mine. No, I don't have any of the emotional cookiness that occurred with Tamoxifen. (YAY!) In fact I don't have any of the side effects I experienced with Tamoxifen, except an occasional hot flash....but even those are not as severe. If my body does well, there is a possibility of me being on it for only 2-3 years as opposed to 5 years. As for my expansions, they were going smoothly until my most recent visit which caused quite a bit of discomfort and a little pain due to overly stretching the muscle and skin. The discomfort and pain resided in less than 24 hours, so it was nothing I could not handle. That is that and there isn't much else to say in regards to my doctor visits.

To answer the question my doctor asked, NO! Despite what many may believe and think, I actually listened to my body. I do, however, get a little frustrated at times during my workout. This is only because I cannot figure out why certain movements are more painful than others. It makes no sense that I can easily perform all the olympic lifts that involve the bar going overhead or using quite a bit of upper body strength, however, it is quite difficult to hang from the bar. Like, really?! Just hanging from the bar?! Obviously I have listened to my body and avoid anything "hanging from the bar" for now until I am more healed. The one thing I've learned from the healing process of my first surgery is, the body has a mind of its own and sometimes there is no logical reasoning behind certain things (words from my surgeon and plastic surgeon that I have carried with me). Which leads into my next point, most patients do not recover full strength for several months to a year post surgery. In fact, the end of July my plastic surgeon told me not to count on regaining my full strength until probably the Spring time. Little did he know who he was talking to. I have recovered almost ALL of my strength and then some since June 21. Patience, persistence and being grateful have been the magic formula for me. The photo bellow was taken earlier this week and it happens to be the exact weight I performed prior to surgery (tooting my own horn right now!).

105# Overhead Squat

In addition to all this progress, I went back to work this past Tuesday. While it was a little difficult to wake up to an alarm the first day, I quickly was back into the swing of things by the second day. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed my job and how fun it is without the whirlwind stress of missing so much work due to all the doctors appointments that accumulated last semester. I guess I can look at it as a blessing in disguise because this whole experience has opened up more than my eyes. I am more grateful now for my health (mentally and physically) than I have ever been.

I leave today's blog with one more image that I'm sure some of you will appreciate while others may cringe. It's officially football season, so what else would you expect from me?! :)

XO,

Allyson