Hope! It IS possible to overcome the side effects of hormone therapy.
After my breast cancer treatment finished, I started hormone therapy. For the next 10 years.
Initially, nothing much happened. A few hot flushes. To be expected. Bit of insomnia. Standard. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and thought I’d got away with it.
As it turned out, my side effects didn’t kick in for about 4 months. When my feet started to hurt. Joint pain. Tendonitis. Excruciating burning. At times it was brutal. There were days that I could barely walk. It impacted every aspect of my life. I couldn’t run around with my kids like I wanted. All my shoes hurt. I couldn’t do the sports I love. I couldn’t get out of bed without hobbling. I tried to be positive but I was miserable.
MRI’s showed damage to both feet.
So eventually, after battling through and trying to carry on as normal, I decided to stop running - for 3 months - to see what would happen.
Which sounds so obvious. But when running is your passion, identity, social life and sanity, it’s a big deal. Other than pregnancy, I can’t remember the last time I didn’t run, in the last 25 years. I have run my way around the world, through every landscape and weather imaginable, through multiple traumas.
And through cancer.
I run for my head as much as for my heart.
The last 3 months have been a combination of rest and intense physio. It’s been soul destroying. Boring. Painful. Frustrating. I’ve hated it. I’ve felt trapped in an achy, aging body that I don’t recognize. I’ve been grumpy. Nothing else quite cuts it like running.
But finally, I am starting to run again. It’s a long way from being perfect. I’m clunky and slow. I’m still nursing my feet. I still have some pain. I have lost so much fitness. I need to be very careful and accept I am no longer the athlete I was.
But f**k me, it feels so good!
So my point is - don’t lose hope. It is possible to overcome the side effects. But it takes time, patience, compromise - and it’s not a linear journey.
But hang in there!
Keep showing up.
Consistency is key.
And know that the baby steps all add up.
It feels so good to be able to run again. It’s been a long time coming!