CHOOSING victim and EARNING survivor

[Jules_68]

Hi everyone, I have picked up Lance Armstrong bio "it not about the bike" from library and looking forward to reading and being inspired. I have also found another book which is really hitting the notes with me, "from this moment on" by arlene cotter. It is a little book with phrases and questions. If you are like me, I cant concentrate too long on one task at present. I was driving home from the library and TODAY I thought, "im not a victim Im a survivor", since joining the survivors c-connect I have been doing one thing wrong, I have had the mind set of a VICTIM.........Yes a lightbulb moment for ME.......... I have been CHOOSING VICTIM however i am now EARNING SURVIVOR.......Thank you to all who have shared with me up today......YOU all have walked with me through the small but hard steps of my journey........THANK YOU. Jules

[Val]

You have my vote Jules

[SILLY]

I had wondered when one becomes a survivor. I received an invite from the hospital where I had my 6 weeks of radiation last June and July to their National Cancer Survivors Day event. It was then I realised I am a survivor.I used to think it meant that you had to be cured but now I think it also means living, despite it still lurking there , waiting to raise its ugly head sometime in the future . The "living" is very different because I am different. Despite what I just said I do feel like a victim too as I look different and have side effects of surgery and radiation .These have to be faced on a daily basis. I suspect there are many who feel similarly . I read all the profiles of the Head and Neck group and see that many are worse off than I.

[harker]

I remember that same moment. For me it had a lot to do with how I saw myself and not a lot to do with physics and chemistry. I remember the realisation that whatever the doctors said or did or planned to do I was the one who would be living with it. If I live for fifty years I am living with it. If I die next week I am living with it, too. I am a survivor, whatever happens. It was a very empowering moment because it took my existence right outside the medical domain and placed it with me, where I could define it and shape it. They could get on with their physics and chemistry. That was not what i was about. H

[#5]

It was the Lance Armstrong book that made me acknowledge I was a survivor, and even I suppose that I had had cancer. It is a shared copy and each person who reads it has to write their first name and status inside the from cover. Writing in that book was about as difficult as telling my children when I got diagnosed. I put my cancer aside for a few months and got on with getting my life back together. Now I'm back on to being a survivor, getting some help and moving forward, I wonder what the next step will be?

[samex]

i just came across this post. It's funny how we need, at times, to give ourselves labels to try to make sense of our lives. BC, I predominantly classified myself as a teacher and wife and mother. Now I also see myself in terms of a survivor but ironically I haven't been able to do the survivor's lap at Relay for Life, despite having a number of friends who are involved in the event. I have only 1 more year to go to the magic 5 years and then I wonder if I really will think of myself as true survivor. Another observation- I am no longer definite about how I will feel in a year's time. 4 year's ago I would have been more definite about my opinions and views. i guess now nothing surprises me. One thing is certain - the survivor badge is one we certainly all earn.