Introduction

I am a single mom with two grown children who are spending less and less time at home. I am also a breast cancer survivor. I was diagnosed in May 2009, underwent a bi-lateral mastectomy in August 2009, and my reconstruction was done in December 2009.

Goals and motivation

I want to look and feel better (an obvious goal, right?)

I am hoping the exercise will help my empty nest syndrome and the blues that have come with it.

I also want to rebuild the muscles in my chest that were broken down and weakened by the reconstruction after mastectomies. In order to place the implants, I had to undergo a procedure of stretching the pectoral muscles by use of a tissue expander. This created a pocket to place the implant into. So, they had to cut the muscle just below my collar bone twice...once for the tissue expander and once to place the permanent implant.