Keeping resolutions despite health hardships: Nurse takes on cancer diagnosis with exercise

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Many people will resolve to get in shape in the new year, but few will stick to it.

A local woman not only is completing a year of living a healthier lifestyle, she did so despite a life-threatening diagnosis.

"I was determined to lose some weight, eat healthier, and get into a fitness program,” Faith Lauer of Allentown said. “It has helped me quite a bit mentally and physically.”

Lauer, an operating room nurse, decided to make her 2023 New Year’s resolution to improve her fitness.

"I started with metabolic conditioning classes three times a week, which involves intervals of cardio and weight training," she said of her new routine.

"And then on the opposite days I would do some weightlifting for upper body and then lower body, and I would eat a little bit better, cut down on the junk food.”

In March, at a screening she had pushed off for six months, she got a diagnosis that tried to stop her in her tracks: stage one invasive carcinoma breast cancer.

“Before that, I had been exercising and this was kind of like: How can this be?" she said.

"I just started trying to get in better shape and really work on my fitness, improving my fitness level, and then this happened."

More common than she thought

Lauer’s story is more common than she thought, said her radiation oncologist, Dr. Alyson McIntosh of Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute.

“What happens is, once you start to focus on your health, you begin to think about what screening that you need to do as part of your regular health care," McIntosh said.

"And that's where, fortunately, a lot of things are detected in our screening procedures, like mammograms and pelvic exams and some regular blood work."

Lauer said it was a devastating time, but she wasn’t going to let it derail her from the healthy course she was already on.

"I stuck with it," she said. "I had the surgery the following month in May, and continued to work out.

"I was back in the gym three or four days later with light weights and continued on that path, and even through the radiation treatments.”

"I think it helped me quite a bit to be able to have enough energy to get through the treatments with my working out on a regular basis."

Not only did Lauer have enough energy for recovery, she went on to complete a Spartan Race that summer and a Tough Mudder competition in fall.

Now in remission

McIntosh said her patients' dedication to physical activity definitely played a role.

“There are studies showing that even small amounts of exercise, not even intense exercise but that is even better in some sense, really help a patient get through treatment with fewer side effects," she said.

McIntosh said people don’t have to run a marathon, but daily walks can be beneficial when fighting cancer.

"In oncology, it's really scary when you're the patient because there are a lot of things that are not under your control," she said. "And even as the doctor or the provider, there are things that are out of your control.

"The biology is what it is. You have to figure out how to manipulate it. But the fact is that they've proven, both in patients and in the laboratory, that you can help your odds of beating cancer by doing something yourself, like exercising."

Lauer now is in remission.

"I feel great," she said. "I definitely want to stay on this path. It's been nothing but positive for me, as far as fitness. Definitely in the new year, I'm going to continue it."

She said her advice to anyone hoping to get healthier in the new year is to take baby steps, join a gym and become familiar with the members.