+ 2 Legit going thru breast cancer at 33, AI with silver lining?
Diagnosed at 32 with breast cancer, surgery and rads done. Pre surgery chemo done. Going through "chemo lite" now. The glucocorticosteroid Decadron ruined my metabolism and all the docs kept freaking out about me losing weight initially. Congrats, I gained 35# of pure lard by the time it was over. Now, I am as fat as I have been in my entire life, after having been a fairly competitive collegiate athlete and more recently, a CrossFitter till this cancer nonsense showed up.
I never have done anything beyond whey, and my focus was always performance. Now, I will be taking Zoladex once a month to shut down my ovaries and then a choice between tamoxifen and probably exemestane aka Aromasin for 10 years straight. January 2015 results from a study suggest Aromasin may be better at dealing with the cancer, but after poking around the Internet, I am wondering if there might be a silver lining here... If I have to take this shit anyway, can I at least use this opportunity to get ripped to shreds and pr my lifts again?
I realize diet, cardio, lifting and recovery will be a huge part of that, but I just really don't want to live the rest of my life as a disgusting, fat old lady. Any thoughts you all might have would be most welcomed!
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Would using HGH help you??
H is a big no to people who have or have had issues with cancer.. in a very simple way cancer is when a cell doesn't stop dividing.. there is a point when a cell has a "shut off" and cancer is when the cells don't shut off.. they keep on.. H promotes cell growth and synthesis .. so it would be like throwng gasoline on a fire
Im sorry to hear this happened to you. I know many patients personally and there is a long list of public figures such as Lance Armstrong who overcame cancer and recovered into as equal or better condition than pre diagnosis. For a lot of people it is this life event ironically that triggers them to become health conscious. Chemo is basically poison so dont get down about limitations outside of your control during treatment. I hope you enter and stay in remission and feel great and come out more focused, driven, and sculpted than ever ;) Keep us updated.
Thanks so much! Coming back better than ever is definitely the gameplan!
I'm looking forward to your progress reports
Also even though this may not be the answer you're looking for, take this time to really look at your diet! Part of the reason my good friend went from like 180lbs to a lean 130 after her cancer was the way she changed her diet...she now eats mostly whole home prepared or raw foods no fast food, only eats out once a week or so, her diet is usually mornings a large portion of fruit with a few rolls or slices of bread, snacks durring the day lots of nuts and healthy trail mix, maybe a green banana or two....light lunch if any and then a dinner of lean meat either fish, buffalo, chicken, or other low fat protein with plenty of veggies either raw or steamed...she also eats lots of quiche, and eggs, but in general she sticks to healthy whole foods and that's part of the reason she lost and kept off all that weight
Totally agree. My husband's idea of making dinner is ordering Chinese or a pizza. When I had energy, I would never let him do that, but of course during surgery, chemo and radiation, I could barely do anything. Now that my energy is coming back, eating whole, home made foods is definitely the gameplan.
What's your question here? Yes one of my best friends did the tamoxifen (nolvadex) thing for 5-10 yrs after her breast cancer but I'm not sure what you're asking....tamoxifen by itself won't make you "ripped" it'll keep Estro low but it doesn't produce more test if anything like my friend you'll see a loss in water weight and maybe fat around the breast thighs and tummy due to less Estro...on the other hand if you're asking about running other AAS the answer is NO stay away from it as test converts to Estro and even things like orals can cause increased growth in cancer...again tell me exactly what the question is here I have a decent amount of exp with this one as I was her care taker for 10yrs
I m not advocating for her to run gear based on the info .. not everything converts to estrogen .. anavar does not .. neither does equipoise.. .. those are two just off the top of my head.
In a nutshell, will exemestane daily + Zoladex monthly for 10 years make it easier / harder to regain and improve muscle mass and body composition.
Historically, I was about 160/165 before chemo. I didn't care about being uber lean because I was strong enough and fit enough to continue hitting my performance goals, and I was happy with that. Now, I worry I will never get back to that performance level, so I am contemplating appearance goals. In an ideal world, I would maximize both . I did stuff before cancer! Where I am now is not who I am! Ugh.
During the first half of chemo starting July 10, I continued to eat healthfully, but I nevertheless lost 23#, 13 of which was muscle. In 12 weeks. My docs freaked and put me on an obscene amount of dexamethasone, which is 20x stronger than prednisone and known for muscle wasting and triggering pre-diabetic hyperinsulinemia. They also asked me to eat shit like ice cream and donuts to not lose any more. I was scared so I listened. After 4 rounds with chemo, I went from probably 22h/wk in the gym to not even having enough energy to fold my own laundry. Fast forward 4 months later, after all the other cancer nonsense, and here is where I am. Due to radiation and surgery, I just got permission to plank again last week. For a long time, they didn't even want me to carry my purse on my shoulder. This is not me. This is not the girl who rows a sub 8m 2k, back squats 265, deadlifts 345, shoulder presses 115, and can rope climb like a monkey. Not me.
Going forward, obviously my plan is to try to get back to where I was. I doubt that will be easy, maybe not even physically possible. Also, Before, I didn't focus on diet obsessively, so I feel like I can tighten up there even more than my pre chemo habits. I don't want to choose a drug that makes it harder.
My docs don't give a shit if I am fat as long as I am alive. They continue to refer to me as thin, likely only by comparison to their normal obese patient. I am like a sexy wildebeest in a herd of elephants. I don't want to be a wildebeest. I want to get back to being a lioness. In asking my docs questions about whether taking tamoxifen vice Aromasin will make it easier / harder to lose weight and get back to where I was (or at least looking better if I can't get my performance back where it was), well, they roll their eyes and dismiss it as a concern. I don't care if it's vain- I didn't live through cancer to feel like an alien in a body I don't recognize.
So yeah, I have a ton of work to do, but I never even contemplated all these crazy hormones before. I just ate well, worked out hard, and tracked performance goals.
My very specific questions after all that context and background is, assuming I do the diet and workout business I need to be doing, 1) will tamoxifen versus Aromasin make it easier / harder to achieve performance and/or composition goals, and 2) which one should I take?
Thanks so much. I am beyond delighted to hear from human beings who can see success as something more meaningful than just surviving.
Let me apologize for not getting to this sooner! I'll be on in the morning to reply