Exercise and cancer related foot pain and tendonitis

Cancer treatment and hormone therapy can cause joint pain and tendonitis

Anyone who has been following me for a while will have heard about my feet. The ongoing pain. The loss of fitness. The crippling sadness and frustration of being a passionate runner who can’t run or exercise.

So why have I shut up about it recently?

Because - I’m scared to say it - they’re SO MUCH BETTER. The pain isn’t gone. I know I need to be careful. But I CAN RUN AGAIN. I feel like me again when I run. It’s fluid and fun and bouncy and (nearly) painless.

Why? I don’t know exactly.

How? I don’t know exactly.

Why now? No idea.

Actually I do know. It’s from spending a year consistently doing physio exercises and being smart about my back to running training.

It’s from hitting the 2 year mark post chemo, my body has finally recovered enough to actually repair itself.

Hormone therapy has plunged me into ‘extreme menopause’, which means my joints, tendons and every other bodily system are fighting to work properly without the essential ingredient of oestrogen.

As a hormone positive cancer patient, I need to have no oestrogen so my cancer - hopefully - can’t grow back. But that’s not how women are designed to be. Even after normal menopause, there is still some oestrogen.

But I have none.

An oncologist I spoke to recently said that it can take 2 years for your body to settle down to hormone therapy and that from now, my side effects should stay stable.

I really, really hope that this means my feet are finally on the mend for good.

So, if you’re battling with post cancer, hormone therapy joint and tendon pain, hang in there, know there’s Hope and KEEP MOVING.

Trust the process. Trust your body.

Gentle exercise, physio and time have improved my cancer related foot pain