Brain tumor survivor cross-trains to aid recovery, improve health

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Carolyn Viss
  • Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (AFNS) --  Tech. Sgt. Carmen Colon-Alemany knew what to expect going into her second brain surgery. She'd been on the operating table before when the doctors first found a mass on the left side of her brain, around her temple, and when an aneurysm that hadn't burst was removed.

This second surgery, five years later, was required not only to remove a tumor regrowth, but also repair Sergeant Colon's skull, which hadn't fused properly after the first surgery. The muscles over her temple had atrophied, causing a huge dent in the side of her face. The slightest pressure on that portion of her head -- even what little it took to wear her uniform hat or brush her hair -- caused pain, because the brain was basically only covered by a layer of skin.

The difference was, this time she was ready. She was ready for the pain, ready for the stitches, but most of all she was ready for the recovery. She had been cross-training for more than a year, and felt great going into surgery.

"I was really surprised, though," said Sergeant Colon, a Hawaii Air National Guardsman with the 154th Medical Group. "Last time, from beginning to end, I was on a profile for a year and a half."

After two months of recovery time, Sergeant Colon was able to get back in the gym and begin working out again -- a modified set of exercises, of course, but cross-training nonetheless. As a health services management technician for the 154th MDG and a prior active-duty aeromedical evacuation technician, Sergeant Colon was not new to the medical career field, but she didn't expect such a drastic difference in her recovery times from when she had her first surgery, in 2004, to her most recent surgery, in September 2009.

Prior to her first surgery, Sergeant Colon had failed her physical fitness test and gotten into running as a "fix." She passed the retest by a small margin and kept running, doing about three miles a night to keep up her abilities.

"I was thin," she recalled, but she still lacked what she refers to as "fitness."

She got into CrossFit after her husband, Tech. Sgt. Isaiah "Ike" Murray Jr., a loadmaster with the 535th Airlift Squadron, got back from his first workout with his friend and fellow loadmaster. Ike came back totally exhausted and exhilarated, and Sergeant Colon said she couldn't resist her curiosity as to what kind of workout made her husband work out so hard. Once she did one workout, she was hooked.

Every year since then, Sergeant Colon has gotten a 90 or higher on her physical training test, and she's even gotten her 13-year-old son, Amir, into the workouts.

CrossFit not only reshaped her body (she can now do pushups and even pull-ups with ease and has muscle tone to prove it) -- it's reshaped her life, she said. Throughout the short recovery time of her second surgery, her CrossFit "family" was cheering for her and encouraging her, the way they do to get her through the toughest "Workout of the Day" at the gym. Her first day back was a huge triumph.

"There's a great sense of community there," said Sergeant Colon, who completed the 2009 Great Aloha Run, even though she rarely runs, and no longer needs to drag herself in and out of the gym.

And even though she doesn't do it because of any Air Force prescription, she said it definitely benefits her as a military person as well.

"I love the way it makes me feel," she said. "As a female, it makes me feel empowered. It makes me feel like I'm in good shape. Really, you could stick me in a tactical environment, and I can carry the flak vest, I can carry the web belt and all my gear, I can get down and crawl around and do anything else they might have me do. I really feel my physical fitness has contributed to my overall health.

"With having three kids and a husband, it's not just me I have to think about," Sergeant Colon said. "After I saw how fast I recovered from my second surgery ... it was a reality check. I feel great."

As she pursues a commission in the coming year, Sergeant Colon knows she can get through anything without being "laid up" like she was during her first surgery.

She does it for the health of it.