In reply to Mark Westerman:
I had emailed you Mark, but have decided to post my reply up here publicly as well now for the benefit of others, as I couldn't find any advice on how my surgery would affect my climbing and other activities when I went through this last year, and went through a lot of unnecessary worry about it.
Assuming that it is just a sentinel node biopsy that your wife has had (a diagnostic test where they inject you with dye/a radioactive isotope and then remove one or two lymph nodes), I wouldn't worry about it.
I had a sentinel lymph node biopsy, which involved removal of a lymph node from my armpit, last summer (aged 47), at the same time as a mastectomy and breast reconstruction for early stage breast cancer.
The advice I had (on a leaflet!) was that the risk of lymphoedema following this diagnostic test was very small (about 1%), as only one or two lymph nodes are removed. My consultant told me that the risk is mainly associated with lymph node clearance, which is more extensive surgery that removes most or all of the nodes if some are found to contain cancer.
My consultant and physio were fully aware that I was climber etc, and weren't concerned about the risk of lymphoedema; in fact my physiotherapy was tailored to getting me fit to climb again!
I had a bit of stiffness in my shoulder/armpit for about a month after the surgery, but did all the stretches three times a day, and kept them up, and was soon back to full mobility. The lymph node was removed from the inside rather than making another cut in my armpit, which probably helped.
I was advised to wait 14 weeks before starting to climb again, mainly due to the abdominal surgery I'd had to provide a tissue graft for the reconstruction (DIEP), but the physios did admit they'd never had a climber before, so I think they were definitely being over cautious, as I was otherwise told I could resume 'heavy manual work' after 8 weeks.
I actually felt comfortable to start climbing again after 9 weeks, so got back to it then; just started on slabby routes at the wall, but top-roped a 6a in the first session and seconded a gritstone Severe the week after, and led a couple of big multipitch Diffs in the Lakes at about week 12. Since then my climbing's basically got back to normal (ie. still a bit rubbish!). I was really lucky that I didn't need any other treatment such as radiotherapy or chemo. The latter really takes it out of people, and I'm sure would have put things on
hold for a lot longer.
The main thing stopping me climbing now is the bloody weather!
I was very fit before the surgery, and worked very hard at progressive rehab through walking, swimming, cycling etc, and religiously kept up the physio exercises. But as I said before, it was really the abdominal surgery rather than the breast/armpit surgery which took the time to recover from. The top half felt pretty much back to normal after about 2 months.
Regarding kayaking, there is a bit of a movement of women around the world who take up dragon boat racing after breast cancer, and some claims that this actually reduces the risk of lymphoedema and improves recovery. It might be worth your wife having a bit of a google on this one.
I really hope your wife is OK anyway, and makes a full recovery. If it's anything like what I went through (I'm assuming it's breast cancer...), it's a pretty traumatic experience. I found that climbing and all my other mountain activities were a big part of what got me through it all, so the sooner she can get back to doing these things the better.
