What better way to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness month, then by sharing Dee's amazing breast cancer success story.

Dee's mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 50 and later passed away from the disease. Since the age of  30, Dee had been getting regular mammograms. At the age of 57, Dee was a longtime Pilates client as well as a body for her friend, Susan (60), who was enrolled in the Pilates Technique Certification program. During the Level 3 test, Dee said she had had a mammogram and the results were "not good".  This was on Friday. She went in to surgery the next week to have a Lumpectomy. Her Dr. told her, "Well, it's the same kind your mom had. It wasn't a matter of IF you were going to get it, it was just a matter of WHEN".  The surgery went well......

 

Dee woke up from surgery with her arms overhead. The Dr. looked confused. He said, "Doesn't that hurt your shoulders?". She said "No, why should it?" Commonly after Lumpectomy surgery, women have a very difficult time lifting their arms overhead. Dee suggests it was all the work we had done in Pilates on her shoulders. She came to Pilates with 2 Torn Rotator Cuffs and at that point 11 years prior, was unable to lift her arms above her head. With the help of Physical Therapy and Pilates, Dee regained full range of her shoulders and works to maintain that range even today. 

 

Dee's surgery was on July 15th, and she was back to Pilates on July, 19th. We were very conservative with her shoulder range as we didn't want to damage the stitches, but she felt a lot better after working out, getting the residual anesthesia out of her system.The breath in Pilates also helped to calm her mind as you well imagine, the mental distress during this time period.  The next hurdle was Chemo. 

In next weeks article we will explore Dee's experience with Chemotherapy and how Pilates truly helped her to get through it.