The things I wish someone would of told me when i was diagnosed with Breast Cancer
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The things i wish someone told me when i was diagnosed with cancer
The things i wish someone told me when i was diagnosed with cancer
1. Do not decide to shave your hair before it falls out… Once you lose your hair you will feel a feeling that you have never experienced before, which can bring depression, embarrassment and for the first time when you look in the mirror you will see a cancer patient looking back at you. So keep it as long as possible once it starts to fall out in clumps, shave it off. Cancer will control every aspect of your life. Once it starts to control your hair then take control back by shaving it off, just don’t do it to early
2. Find a support group and begin to go at least once a week (especially during chemo) because this will help you more than you realize. It doesn’t matter how many people who love us rally around us. You will need a group of supporters that know exactly what you're going through. No one understands the fear and confusion better than those who have experienced it.
3. When going to get your results make sure to have someone go with you. I never quite understood the saying “after my diagnosis I came out a completely different person” but it’s true once I got my diagnosis I walked out of that doctor's appointment a completely different person than I was walking in”. So take someone with you when getting your results.
4. When your loved ones ask ”how are you” take that as an opportunity to talk about how you're feeling. To often we don’t want to burden others with our “issues” But not talking about how your feeling will only leave you feeling more alone
5. Do not get reconstructive surgery at the same time as a double mastectomy. I thought there was no way I could wake up from surgery and have no breast so I opted for reconstructive surgery along with my double mastectomy. That is a pain that leaves you paralyzed. Breathing hurts and this pain will last about 7 weeks non stop. Day in and day out. Just thinking about the pain makes me shake, even today.
6. When looking for scarves or a hat to cover your balding head don’t become discouraged once you realize that the head pieces you will find when looking in magazines or online are not very flattering. You know your style. So go to your local wal-mart and buy a bunch of different colored scarves and make your own head pieces. This will leave you looking better, physically and feeling better, emotionally
7. The pain will get better!!!! I promise! Yes you will scream out in pain at times and yes it will leave you feeling like you can’t survive but with that builds an amazing strength that eventually will be the only feeling you feel. You will never forget the pain but you eventually learn to appreciate it. Because without it you would of never known how strong you truly are
8. There will come a time when cancer will take control over everything you once had control of. It will control weather or not your sick, It will control whether or not you have hair, It will control your appearance, It will control whether or not chemo will work and how much radiation it will take to better your odds of not having your cancer come back, It will even control whether you live or die. You will feel powerless. But when this happened to me I tried my hardest to figure out what cancer couldn’t control and then one day it hit me and I hope this helps you…I realized the one thing cancer can not control, is the way we handle having cancer. Breast Cancer is not a death sentence. I beat stage 3 breast cancer and so can you.
So with that said your feelings are normal and you are surviving right now, so live everyday like you are!
About the Creator
SheIsCorean
I make broken look beautiful and my strength lives within the life that I've lived
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Stage 3
Have you ever wondered how a cancer patient really feels? What they really go through? Over time the word "cancer "has become a word that is whispered or never spoken of. Whether it is spoken about or not the reality is those who are diagnosed with cancer can not escape it's grasp. I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and thought I would die for about 5 weeks, then after having a double mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and 19 lymph nodes removed (5 testing positive for cancer) the final diagnosis was stage 3 which I was grateful that I could at least try to fight for my life. I completed 7 months of chemotherapy, 6 weeks of radiation therapy, and am 2 and a half years into hormone therapy, that I have to be on everyday for 10 years. Here is the truth, our truth. Here's my story. Before March 3rd 2017 I thought a “Breast cancer survivor" was a woman who had breast cancer and did not die from it. Boy was I wrong! The word "Survivor" doesn't give justice to what it is we really overcome. Being a Cancer Survivor means so much more then whether we live or die. Survivor is about surviving, not necessarily surviving cancer itself but more about surviving the mental abuse that the effects of cancer will put you through, have you questioning and second-guessing every decision you once were so sure of. Being a survivor is about surviving the emotional abuse that to often leave you feeling crippled, but with no crutches. Try to imagine fighting for your life while everything you once new about yourself is being taken over by an unseen impostor, that confusingly... is you. Surviving are those moments when we begin to question if it's even worth it anymore and as were crying, alone, on our bathroom floor, we find the strength to get back up in order to be a wife or a mom, because no matter what we go through we want those around us to feel normalcy within their own lives. We become survivors every time we show up for chemotherapy, radiation , and for endless surgeries, some so painful that at times you will forget how to breath, praying for it to at least lessen just enough to catch our breath, even if its just for a moment. Over time the pain does lessen while little by little strengthening the way that we will view ourselves. Eventually becoming proud to wear our permanent badge of honor. finally being able to see that we are so much more than just our scars. But that won’t happen until we overcome everything we once never thought we could, like having my breast removed, possibly having my ovaries removed and put on hormone therapy to stop the estrogen in which fuels my cancer, leaving me to ask “if you take all of that from me, than how will I ever feel like I am a woman again?" Being a survivor is the moment we are handed the pen in which our oncologist gives us and we are told to place our signature on a form (before we are given chemotherapy) stating that we understand that chemo will kill some of us. You see for me, just like so many other survivors,our fight doesn’t have anything to do with whether we will survive or not, It’s the possibility that maybe, just maybe because of the fight in which we are fighting today it will give my children and your children a greater possibility to never have to wonder whether they will lose their battle to cancer because we already fought that fight for them.
By SheIsCorean5 years ago in Motivation
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