Depression and cancer diagnosis: Today is a rough day

Today I had a rough day. I am physically well but emotionally not so well. My mood has been low and I kept asking myself why. Then I realized a new year is starting. This will be the first year I will begin as a cancer patient. Seven months ago I underwent a nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma. So much has happened in those seven months. I am not the same person I was before the cancer diagnosis. I don’t feel as sure of myself anymore. I don’t plan for my future too much. I have been living day to day because that seems prudent. I notice certain things trigger the “sense of loss” I feel at times. It’s a difficult thing to be faced with ones mortality.

I think for me my cancer journey will be hyphenated by the depression that has set in since my diagnosis. It doesn’t help that I work at a hospital. I actually work at the hospital where I had my surgery. Today a simple appointment reminder set me in a sort of emotional tail spin. I had a reminder for my follow up with the surgeon that performed my nephrectomy. Wow I thought a new year is coming.

I have never faced a new year as a cancer patient. It made me feel sad and angry at the same time. I felt a knot in my gut. The worst time for me is late in the evening and early hours when I am alone with my thoughts. We all live with an illusion of immortality. When that “veil” of immortality is removed there lies reality. It’s a hard thing to grasp. I am not use to living with the reality of death in front of me like a black cloud of doom lurking nearby. It is disquieting.

I try to remind myself that I am not alone. Right next to me now I feel the warmth of my dog against my leg. That is so comforting. It heals my soul. It’s the little things nowadays that mean so very much. Life is so precious. Don’t waste a minute of it.