My name is Kylie and I’m 35 years old. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer so many thoughts went through my head. I’m so grateful to my surgeon for sending me to a Caner Rehabilitation Occupational Therapist, who is also a Lymphoedema Therapist. I was worried about lymphedema, a potentially life long condition following breast cancer treatment, another thing I hope not to get.
When I met Kate, she put my mind at ease by providing education regarding risk minimisation for developing breast cancer related lymphoedema, and the benefits of exercise before, during, and after my cancer treatment. She put me on this program before starting my chemotherapy, and continue before and after surgery. I do stretches, weights and core exercises. By doing the program before surgery it helped me gain muscle mass, making me stronger which has helped me heal better and quicker!
My energy levels were up on the days I did the exercises, and on the days where I was too sick I just did my stretches. Again, this has helped me through my treatments by staying active and keeping my body moving as much as I could. Now, after my surgery and chemo I have so much movement in my arm because of all the work I did before the surgery, I’m not having any problems at all.
Doing this exercise program has helped me so much through this whole rollercoaster journey.