“Surviving” Life After Breast Cancer

@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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@lisman1408; @dottieh- Thank you. It's unfortunate that the word cancer has become a cancer in itself, few people really know how to react to someone who has cancer. I have even had trouble. At the beginning of my journey I knew what I didn't want to hear but I had no idea what I wanted to hear. Unless you want to be that screaming person in line just nod your head and let the remarks go. Unless of course you can't, like me sometimes. There is no good cancer. All cancer is bad. And it can come back and that petrifies us, and why shouldn't it? To those who really are insensitive maybe tell them the truth, in a calm way- tell them that "what they say makes you feel ..." Educate them. Tell them that no, I am not lucky, lucky is not ever having cancer.
Don't you think that we need to educate people not to be afraid of the word?

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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!

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17 years out and there is still much suckiness, BUT……….I have 17 years to complain about. Hahahaha. I feel very blessed to have had those years, but it still sucks sometimes, and no one wants to hear it. That’s why we are all here, right?

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Chris, the suckiness never goes away. I’m 29 years out, clinically doing well, but it has affected many aspects of my life- not in a good way. I think it’s always on my mind, subconsciously at least.
But, I’m still here!

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I still think about it all the time, I don’t worry about every little thing anymore. Probably because I spend my time trying to fan the forever hot flashes and cool my burning neuropathy riddled feet. I have a bit of a sense of humor about, but again, sometimes it just sucks. Right now the feet are the worst of it for me. They really seemed to turn a corner for the worse this year, do not know why. May I ask how old you were? You don’t have to share exact ages. Lol

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