Exercise situation Cancer Treatment:
Being
diagnosed with any cancer nowadays is not necessarily a death sentence but it
is certainly life altering. The drugs and treatment protocols that will be
pumped into your body along with biopsies, operations and complications lymphoma
cancer take their toll on your body’s ability to muster up the energy that you
may have once had for program adherence for a strict exercise routine.
Some
people go through several months of staging and grading depending upon the type
of lymphoma cancer and their actual diagnosis. You can imagine is quite an interruption
to any normalcy their lives might have resembled Pre diagnosis. Then comes the
treatment options, the path to take, financial considerations and for some
family planning. Obviously fitting in exercise, meditation or walks all seem
like luxuries during these times but should be fit in just as urgently as their
treatment protocols when possible for strength building and stress relief.
Once
chemotherapy has come into play and hospitalizations often become necessary
exercise usually takes a back seat. Unfortunately, most hospitals don't have a
system to integrate exercise into these patients’ treatment protocols. Even the
worst off patients can benefit from mild exercise i.e. walks, relaxation
techniques, restorative yoga, chair exercises, light weight lifting, or some
form of cardiovascular activity to aid in the reduction in fluid retention and
muscle atrophy.
After
getting out of the revolving door of multiple hospitalizations the weakness in one’s
body is immense not to mention a lot of these patients are sent home with
aftercare and are still truly ill and incapable of fending for them. Medical
visits continue for many months if not years. For many patients blood building
shots like Neupogen and Apogent are common and painful. Regular monitoring of
blood levels called CBC's are taken to check the status of the white and red
blood cells along with other important cells that are informative to the
hematologist monitoring the cancer patients prognosis.
So
when, how and what kind of exercise does one partake in? There are cancer exercise classes popping up all over the place. Yoga classes for the cancer
survivor, swim classes, movement classes but what about mind body classes that
can address the emotional turmoil along with building the body back up at the
same time. Strengthen the mind and the body will follow!
A
whole new level of fitness practitioner needs to be created for cancer
survivors who are faced with an aftermath of side effects from Lymph edema
after having lymph nodes removed to blood issues such as neutropenia or anemia,
Epstein Barr, Chronic Fatigue, or even Recurrent Meningitis or histories or
Encephalitis from insulted immune systems.
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