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In October 2018, Jennifer Broxterman received a phone call from a blocked number. A gastrointestinal surgeon was on the line to tell her she had colon cancer.
“I remember it so clearly — so cold, clinical, straight to the point,” said Broxterman, a 2013 and 2014 Canada East regional competitor from London, Ontario.
Turns out, her doctor was wrong. Broxterman’s eventual diagnosis was a whole lot more dire than that.
Upon further investigation, it was determined the primary source was ovarian cancer, which had spread to her colon. In fact, they eventually discovered two types of ovarian cancer, a slower-growing one and a particularly deadly, rapidly-growing one.
The prognosis: A five-year survival rate of nine percent.
So according to statistics, the 35-year-old Registered Dietitian, whose husband Dave Henry owns CrossFit London, has a nine percent chance of living for five years.
From Diagnosis to Surgery to Rehab
In December 2019, Broxterman underwent major surgery, where doctors discovered her Stage 3 cancer had spread more than originally thought. As a result, she lost her entire reproductive tract, two parts of her large intestine, a part of her small intestine, her appendix, ileocecal valve and part of her bladder.
To say 2019 was a horrible nightmare is an understatement.
But somehow, through the nightmare, Broxterman has found a way to remain hopeful, positive and legitimately happy.
“I actually don’t have any less happiness in my life today than I did before the diagnosis,” she said. “The lows are deeper and the fears and anxieties I feel are stronger than ever, but I come out of those moments with so much appreciation and gratitude and love for all of the things that are still really good in my life.”
Broxterman is adamant she never would have been able to embrace this mindset if it weren’t for CrossFit — and the fitness it has helped her achieve in the last 12 years — and for her community of friends at CrossFit London.
She remembers her first workout back, a couple weeks after she was released from the hospital. Her femoral nerve had been damaged during surgery, which left her temporarily paralyzed and then unable to walk. Only weeks before, she had been back squatting more than 200 pounds and rocking muscle-ups. And now, just walking with a walker was hard.
“I literally just walked one circle around the gym — that was the whole workout — but it was the most amazing walk ever. I had an entire group of people, and my dog, beside me cheering me on,” she said.
She added: “You really just can’t put a price on the emotional support I have received from the community.”
Also because of CrossFit, doctors felt comfortable releasing Broxterman from the hospital earlier than they would have had she not been so fit and strong, and had she not had a husband who was competent in helping her rehabilitate her body.
Broxterman credits her high fitness level leading up to her surgery with making this last year — the worst year of her life — much more bearable than it otherwise would have been.
“Just things like how I had the upper body strength to pull myself out of bed in the hospital when my abs had been cut open and my legs didn’t work,” she said. “Or how I could hold and support myself to sit on a toilet.”
Her 12 years of CrossFit, including competing at the regional level, also made her much more resilient to coping with physical pain, she explained.
“The pain was a 15 out of 10 after surgery,” she said. To get through the pain, she trained herself to focus on getting through just one minute at a time.
“It was kind of like the worst WOD of your life, where you have to dig deeper and you think, ‘OK, three more reps. Just three more reps.’ And then you do those three reps and then you’re like, ‘Shit, another three reps,’” she said.
Broxterman added: “Because of CrossFit, I knew the pain was temporary, that I would get through it. I was way more mentally resilient because of it.”
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