Fifteen months on from that surrealistic moment of being told 'We're telling you - it's Cancer', I can hardly believe the twists and turns my life,my body, my emotions and my personality have experienced. From that stunning realisation that I wouldn't be going back to work for a while - I am a hairdresser and had a full mastectomy - losing my identity, vital human connections, and dealing with telling my family and my children, I could never have guessed at how big that black hole could be, how lonely or even that I would ever feel I was coming out the other side. Through the time that has passed, I've felt the disappointment at friends inability to deal with what has happened - people do disappear - I have concluded that the reality of cancer day by day and it's treatment is too much for most people to take on emotionally or intellectually. I learned to edit what my life had become, with the never ending problems I had with pain, muscle collapse and my own inability for the first time in my life to be positive, when I kept feeling dumped by health professional as well as friends. After all - 'isn't treatment about throwing up?'- someone asked me. Don't misunderstand me - I had good days in amonghst all of that, but I can't help feeling I lost myself for quite a while. Crunch time for me came earlier this year - when really in the depths of despair that the nightmare was never going to end, I found some spark of my old self to finally take the first step towards some control. I went to my GP - nobody had thought to tell me to stay in touch with him, and I certainly never thought of it, after all I was seeing so many specialists - shouldn't they be helping me? My first step was a referral to see a physical therapist, to rebuild my strength, 'wake up' my muscles that would not switch on and rehabilitate my shoulder and arm. I started walking - very short walks, exercises every day and a pool programme. For two hours every day - nothing else got done, I was too tired after that. Slowly my muscles started working, my walks became longer, stairs were no longer a dreaded thing to behold. I started Pilates once per week and my GP put me onto supplements to build my stamina as well as other things. My physical strength has come back to what I consider my start point - now I can now build my fitness. My children have been a wonderful help, making lots of cups of tea, helping their poor old mum in and out of the car, up off the lounge chair, out of bed, twice nearly burning the house down to cook some dinner. They were frightened about what would happen to them and their dad if mum wasn't around. But I found giving them a plan, even though my statistics are good helped them. I am now working on my emotional fallout and feel sure that if I approach it the same as I did with my physical problems - one thing at a time - it too will all come together.
4 Comments
harker
Frequent Contributor
That's a lovely post Betsy. I recall the same things happening for me over the past five and a half years. It isn't going to go anywhere, except around in circles, until you take control of it and that is what you have realised and are doing. It took me a year and a half to realise that. That's when I started logging on to this site and saying how it is for me - not for my body, but for me. Know what I mean? H
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little_stitcher
Super Contributor
You're an inspiring woman Betsy.
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Betsy
Occasional Contributor
Thankyou little stitcher - I don't feel inspiring, I just feel that I have finally found the strength to put one foot in front of the other.
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Betsy
Occasional Contributor
It's strange isn't it - I don't think I have accepted losing my breast - I don't know if I ever will, but its really the last thing on my mind - it is the struggle finding me as a person now, how is my life going to be once I have it all together - will I ever feel that I have it together again? Will I ever feel like people are not looking at me like - 'there's that mum, that hairdresser that got cancer?' But I hold onto the strength that I will deal with this one thing at a time. It's really good to be able to write about these things. I did look at this site earlier in the year, but was frightened by the darkness I felt my life to be in and was worried what I might say. Thankyou for your words - it is so reassuring that there are people who get you.
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