01 - Living My New Norm After Surviving Breast Cancer
Walking is something many of us do without thinking, how walking can promote and even lower our risk of breast cancer so, get out there and walk and take of advantage of walking and the health benefits it offers.
01 - Living My New Norm After Surviving Breast Cancer
Living Fully After Breast Cancer
Have you ever wondered how to navigate life after breast cancer treatment? Join me on Silver T as I recount my personal journey through the ups and downs of recovery, from dealing with the aftermath of chemotherapy and radiation to managing the complex web of vitamins and medications prescribed by my doctors. In this heartfelt episode, I share my battles with Anastrozole and its challenging side effects, like brittle nails, muscle aches, and fatigue, as well as an unexpected high blood pressure diagnosis that led me to taking Irbesartan and Metoprolol. Despite these hurdles, I focus on the gratitude I feel for being cancer-free and my unwavering commitment to staying positive and active.
In the second part, I offer essential health advice specifically tailored for fellow cancer patients. Discover how a healthy lifestyle, regular exercise, and proper nutrition can remarkably strengthen your muscles, bones, and overall well-being. I delve into the benefits of crucial vitamins and supplements such as D3, K2, calcium, and iron, and discuss managing medication side effects and the importance of liver health with milk thistle. Concluding with the significance of early detection through regular mammograms, this episode is a must-listen for anyone committed to proactive health maintenance. Grab a cup of tea, subscribe, and join the conversation!
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podcast is about taking medicine and vitamins. I am not a medical professional and I'm not giving medical advice. I'm only talking about Sherry's life. If you are interested in any of the vitamins or medicine in this podcast, please consult your doctor first, because he knows your medical history and he knows what's best for you. So don't just start taking them without talking to your doctor. So if you like what you hear, please hit that subscribe button, that like button and that bell notification button. So whenever I release a new podcast you will be notified. Thank you for watching. Hi, welcome to my podcast, silver T.
Speaker 1:My name is Sherry and today I want to talk about vitamins and medicine. I want to talk about the before and after with my vitamins. I was prescribed after going through my chemo treatments and radiation. So let me start with the ones. The least amount, because I I always took a, I always took vitamins and um, so I don't want to start with those first and I'm only going to talk about the vitamins. That, I think, is it's important to take after, and that was also a, that was also that was given advice from my doctors to take after. So after, when I mean after, I mean after, because it's behind me people. It's gone, it's no more. That that is. It's behind me. I'm looking forward. So I'm looking forward to having a better life. And so let me just finish saying so I am talking about after the treatments, after the radiation. Goodbye, okay.
Speaker 1:So, um, after I had finished my chemo treatment I was my doctor gave me some medicine that I have to take for five to 10 years. First he said five. I was like five, it's not too bad. Then he said 10. Oh, 10. Are you serious? I do not want to take none for 10 years. But guess what? 10 years give you a better chance of that breast cancer not coming back. So I just let my mind to absorb it. And now I am going to make the best of it. So that medicine is called anestesol, and now I am 100 sure I'm asking current the name of this medicine, but it's anestesol. Hopefully I'm close enough. Yes, okay, and also I'm taking.
Speaker 1:Now here's the interesting thing I have never had any any history in my medical history of high blood pressure. When I was diagnosed with cancer I got it. My blood pressure was out of control every time I went into this office, to the point they were so concerned, they were looking like um, so you are taking medicine for this, right? I'm like, no, I never, I never had it before. And doctors, they get in their box, right. So they get into the box they're looking at to color your skin. They're looking at the size and they're saying there's no way, I know you must have had it before. I said, look, I never had it. You can look at my history, I have never had it. You can look at my history, I have never had it. So one doctor actually went the extra mile to go. Look, I don't know if it was a nurse she went to look and she saw the times that I had came into the office and every time I came into that office, which was a chemo office office, it was for my chemo treatment my blood pressure was high. Um, again, lady, I never had high blood pressure, now I have it. And they were saying okay, maybe you have white coat syndrome. What is that? A white coat syndrome? I've never even heard of. Maybe some of you guys have heard of it, but I I never did. So you know what it is. I said I don't know, I don't know if I have that neither. So, um, so, moving on the.
Speaker 1:The end, the end of that little story that I went down that rabbit hole with, is I now have high blood pressure and I take high blood pressure medicine. I take um, herbastartan, and I take um here's another name. I'm sure I'm going to massacre metropopal I. I will put the names right here, all right. So you guys, I'll put it on my side, you'll get a chance to see it over here, over here, and you'll see the names. So I now take those two medicines and let me give you a little bit of information about anestosol.
Speaker 1:So anestosol, its main function is to suppress the estrogen hormone in my body and the reason why he's doing that is because the cancer that I had, because I'm cancer-free, I'm cancer free, yay, no cancer. So I am cancer free. Thank God for it and thank God for love and support from the family that kept my head on right and kept me mentally strong. I had a breast cancer. The breast cancer that I had actually likes to eat estrogen as its food. So I'm on medicine that is there to suppress estrogen. So I don't really have a lot of estrogen in my body. So my nails get. My nails are now brittle. My it causes your bones to ache your muscles, to hurt and and it's it's no longer in your metabolism, so it's also a part of your metabolism. You know our metabolism. Help us. So it's also a part of your metabolism. You know our metabolism. Help us, give us energy and keep us going, and the metabolism department is our cheerleader department. So the cheerleader department is missing somebody.
Speaker 1:And so there's days when you will feel tired and sluggish. Let me tell you, I have been tired the last couple of days. This video is coming out late because I was having some tough days, but I was still in the high spirits. I just was feeling sluggish. I didn't go for my walk like I normally do. I didn't make it to the gym on the days I normally make it on. So I am going to get back in the swing of things, very like today or tomorrow back, but I will meet my mom in the gym. Okay, I was in the. When was the last time I was in the gym? It was on sunday, I think it was on. I think it was on sunday, oh no, it was friday of week. So it's almost a week since the last time I was in the gym and I'm going back to the gym this Friday again to meet my mom.
Speaker 1:So I try and, and all these side effects that I was just mentioning tired and joint pain and muscle pain. How do you counteract some of those side effects? Well, just from my, the research that I read, and just from the advice that was given to me by my, by the nurse navigator. She was telling me exercise helps your body to absorb some of these side effects. So I go to the gym and I go walking and I try to do things. And being in my garden, just around there, cleaning, and you know, just moving around, milling around, pruning, sweeping, trying to make sure I fertilize the plants, get water out there, that's all part of my exercise and I would definitely want to share more of that with you.
Speaker 1:Um, and also eating. When you say eating, you make sure you eat your, your foods that help you with this process, and so the reason I said eating is because we have to have the right amount of protein, like fatty fish. Um, just put more. Just put more. Um. Now, sorry if I'm saying I'm too much because I'm trying to remember so many things. So, fatty fish, yogurts, I do probiotics, a lot of leafy, green, leafy things in your, in your, in your diet. So I I that's just the beginning. That's just some of the things, and I do do those as a matter of fact. I just made yogurt this morning. So now, that's just the beginning. That's just some of the things, and I do do those as a matter of fact. I just made yogurt this morning.
Speaker 1:So now that we talked about the medicines and how to a good way to counter, counteract some of the side effects, let me talk about the vitamins. The number one thing that I take is multivitamins. I take Nature's Made multivitamins and the reason I take this, this particular one, because we all know that the vitamins are huge. So I actually got the soft gel vitamins, which are easier to swallow. You don't have to try to take yourself out. You know trying to get that, you know you're trying to get it down the water and you, you're kicking because you're trying to get it. It's like, oh, it hit that wrong part going down. So this is a soft gel vitamin. It's still pretty big, right, but it's it's soft gel. It's a soft gel.
Speaker 1:My fingers are getting some exercise trying to squeeze this thing, but I take it every day and this one comes with iron. So if you don't need the iron. I don't know if they they may have the one without iron, I don't know. So they have iron in there In that one and I also have now this. We all know b12 is to help give you some energy and this also support your. So it says help reduce fatigue, right, I take one of these a day and this is a capsule.
Speaker 1:It's like a little sweet yumminess in the morning, just it's a little chalky, but you know you enjoy it, so it's good. And I take this is because you know my estrogen levels are low, so we want to get something to give you some energy, help you with the energy, and I take vitamin c. Vitamin c is another good vitamin that you should try and this helps with your immune system. It D3 plus K2. This is good for your bones. If I didn't mention the estrogen, the one that suppresses your estrogen If I didn't mention one of the key things I'm going to mention it right now the anesthetizole medicine, because you don't have the estrogen, we need all that stuff in our bones so our bones can get more osteoporosis, or osteo, because I'm in like the beginning stages of osteopenia, so you want to take something because your bones are now being jeopardized because of this taking of this medicine, but that doesn't mean it's the end of the world.
Speaker 1:All it means is you just have to get out there and exercise. That's all it means Just get out there and exercise, do your walking. These are new norms and you're even stronger than you were before because you're exercising, you're building muscles, you you're strengthening your bones. So you want to make sure you get out there and and exercise. So it's still. You still got that great quality of life. You get out there with your friends, you meet new people, you see other people out there doing their thing.
Speaker 1:So try to take your D2. Your D3 K2. Because it is really good for your bones and it's also good yeah, it's good for your bones, your teeth, muscle and muscle health. So you want to take this Because this will help support you. Are you going through this process? And calcium we need. Calcium supports a bone health. So you want to take I.
Speaker 1:It's recommended take two of these. I was reading about it, but it's to take two. I was trying to take one, but I'm taking two. Let me see here. Let me see. It says, if I can only find the directions yeah, take two. You take two, take two of these and these are actually pretty big too. They are big like the um, the multivitamin one. So look, these are, and they and they also, because me I don't like, I don't like taking pills to begin with, and then you got these big, big, big behind pills you got to take. So I look for them in a softer form, like a, a gel. So I found I have this calcium which is in a gel form. It's about the size of the um, it's about the size of the, the multivitamin one. It's about the size of the multivitamin one. It's about the size of that one. And make sure you take it with plenty of food and a lot of water, because if you don't, it will hurt your stomach and maybe you can take.
Speaker 1:I take some in the morning and I take some in the evening, so I have my evening ones and I have my morning ones, my morning ones and then my evening ones. So, and I also take. Why is this on my desk? I don't know, because it has nothing to do with this new normal of mine, but I take milk thistle. It's good for your liver and it's just here hanging out. Well, I guess I wanted to make an appearance today. But I take milk thistle because it's good for your liver, and I have taken, and I do take, pain pills, and some of these pain pills are not good for your liver, so I try to keep a healthy liver. So I'm also recommended to take iron.
Speaker 1:But the doctor was giving me this strong iron. It was so strong and it was like, and see if I get this here. Let me just show you the pill because it's a, it's a prescription, so I don't want to show you all my. This is a pill, iron pill. But this iron pill is 325 milligrams 325 milligrams and let me tell you be trying to kill you. I'll be having such bad stomach pain.
Speaker 1:So what I did was went out and iron is good for your blood, so you want to make sure your blood is, you're getting the necessary support that it, that it needs. So, um, it supports your blood, it supports the red blood cell production. So I'm reading this from I I'm trying to switch out that iron for a gentle iron and and I try to take this or within this, 28 milligram, which is a big difference, but I'm trying to get some iron in there maybe. I try to take two a day, but I am not about to. But that was just too painful for me so I decided I have to find a way to get the iron in my body without trying to take myself out.
Speaker 1:So that is all of the vitamins, all of the medicine that I take to help counteract my new norm, to help with medicine and side effects. And eating, exercise, eating and taking your vitamins really does help with some of your side effects. I'm trying to see if I got everything. Side effects. I'm trying to see if I got everything and one I don't know when, but I will talk about some exercises that are definitely recommended from the doctor that's good for you to do, like low bearing exercises, walking and strength training, and I do those things, and I will talk about some of the things that I do. Maybe I'll even try to get you in on a session or two. And look, don't judge, okay, when you see me doing it, no judging.
Speaker 1:So the most important thing here to me, after going through all that, I don't have any more information. I'm just making sure I didn't miss anything. The most important thing I want to say here is early detection is the best detection. So get your yearly mammograms done, because cancer does not just affect you, it affects your family, it affects your co-workers, it affects your friends. They all care about you. So they want they want the best for you, so they want to be around. They want you, they want to be around to harass you for a long time to come. So please, if you like what you hear, hit that subscribe button, hit that bell notification. You'll get a notification whenever I post a new podcast and like. So hit the subscribe, like and notification button. Until next time, ladies, have a cup of tea. I know this don't look like a regular cup of tea, but it is a cup of tea. So have a great cup of tea and relax and enjoy life.