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“Surviving” Life After Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer | Last Active: Sep 18, 2021 | Replies (60)

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@merpreb

@lisman1408- Since Colleen already addressed your discussions with @elizm I will let it be. I will however attest to the fact that many, many people are "clueless" when it comes to knowing anything about their own bodies. Having lung cancer opened up a new vocabulary and "job" for me. By job I mean learning all about my lung cancer, bio of my lungs and the cancer that invaded me. I feel that it is every cancer patient's responsibility and job to learn as much as they can about their cancer. Knowledge is power and there is a huge sense of loss of power when it comes to having cancer. I mean, we turn our whole life over to the insurance and medical fields- how scaryl is that?
But even so many people chose to hide from knowing everything that there is so that they can separate themselves from reality, that of having cancer. I found that the more I learned the less tension that I found during my doctor's appointments because I was a better patient and he was a better doctor.
Any ideas how we can open up other people's minds to learning more?

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Replies to "@lisman1408- Since Colleen already addressed your discussions with @elizm I will let it be. I will..."

Thank you, Merry, for your response and kindness. In answer to your question about opening minds... I truly wish I had a great reply to that! I think the article that I posted originally and started this thread with, “The Secret Suckiness of Life after Breast Cancer”, is the closest I have found that reflects the feelings of many who are recovering from breast cancer. It resonated with me, and helped me to explain my feelings to family and friends. I wanted to share it with others here, hoping it would be of benefit to them. If you haven’t read that article please do. I know it’s easy to skip since it’s at the very beginning. For me, this article very much describes many of the emotions and feelings I have gone though. Cancer ‘sucks’, regardless of circumstances!

I agree, you must have knowledge to take charge of your cancer