Turning Negatives into Life-Changers

colinchamp March 3, 2023 5 Comments

The above graphic is from a patient of mine (there is no personal or identifiable info here, so don’t worry HIPPA). I met her after she was diagnosed with an early stage breast cancer. She underwent lumpectomy and removal of the stage IA invasive ductal carcinoma with negative margins. A couple lymph nodes were removed and were negative as well. When the pathologist assessed the lesion under the microscope, there were no high risk features. This type of breast cancer is highly curable, with rates in the mid to even upper 90%. The odds of this diagnosis shortening ones life–especially at this woman’s age—are low.

Now I am not minimizing the diagnosis. A breast cancer diagnosis is a lifetime membership to a club that nobody plans on joining. I treated her with a short course of accelerated partial breast radiation therapy, or the “Florence” regimen. Now, knowing my love of Florence, I did not prescribe this because of the university where it took place, but rather because it is quick and effective with very minimal risk of side effects.

Brunelleschi designed the most beautiful dome in the world, and if he were alive today as a radiation oncology, he would certainly approve of the “Florence Regimen”

And that is where this story begins. She joined the Exercise Oncology and Resiliency Center because of her new “membership,” and engaged in intense resistance training on our regimen during her radiation therapy treatment. She continued to complete the entire regimen. She had to miss a couple days due to traveling and a viral illess,but exercised on her own during both, and therefore never missed a workout the entire three months.

Oh, and she put on a pound of muscle and lost 10 pounds of adipose tissue. As Epictetus tells us, “We cannot chose our external circumstances, but we can choose how to respond to them.” She definitely responded. To add to this story, around the same time we did a reassessment on a woman that just finished her 3 months. She had to have a major orthopedic surgery which had left her unable to exercise for years. She gained 6 pounds of muscle in 3 months, a feat that is almost incomprehensible. These women both positively changed their body composition in a way that I have rarely seen throughout my entire career. She is also significantly stronger, moves better, has improved balance, sleeps better, and has a better quality of life. We know this for a fact because we put her, and all participants, through a battery of tests before and after the regimen.

In other words, she took a diagnosis that is outright frightening, but is unlikely to shorten her life, and turned it into a lifestyle-changing diagnosis, that while still frightening, is highly likely to increase her lifespan by largely reducing her risk of all those common things that we die from like metabolic disease, falls and hip fractures, heart attacks, and yes, even cancer. Through the entire process, from the time I saw her in consultation, until the completion of the exercise program, she was incredible positive, kind, thankful, and grateful. While I watched her health and physical function skyrocket before my eyes, I watched my entire view of the world around change solely due to her attitude, work ethic, and infectious gratefulness and kindness. I preach about the importance of beauty in the world, and she constantly emits it with her infectious outlook on life and her proactive lifestyle.

She taught me a valuable lesson that we can all learn from. We all know the saying that when life gives us lemons, make lemonade, but she has shown us all that when life gives us a bad diagnosis, we would be wise to dig deep within ourselves, remain thankful while attacking it head on, hit the gym, crush the lemons, and improve every single aspect of our health and wellness.

If you doubt that advice, take another look at the changes in the images above.

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