Forum Discussion
Heartbroken, but unbroken
We have just been hit with a TNBC diagnosis. My wife is 44 and we have two young kids. Our world's been turned upside down. There's so much raw emotion and the sense of grief that we all know all too...
There are indeed, and we have all asked them, often all at once too!
The hardest part is accepting that there may not be clear answers and that one person’s experience may vary widely from another’s.
if you think of not having cancer, but having one kind of a very large number of types of cancer it may help. Breast cancer comes in many forms and stages, treatments vary and so reactions.
Detectable cancer may be treated by surgery, chemotherapy or radiation but there is also the issue of cancer cells in the body, not yet detectable but potentially damaging. Chemo essentially hunts out fast growing cells that may cause problems further down the line and, we hope, kills them. It’s not a subtle process and it has implications but to date it’s still an effective tool in the armoury .
The type of chemotherapy will depend on the precise nature of the cancer and possibly on the preference of the oncologist, based on knowledge and experience. You will know much more once you start as it is very hard to predict reactions beforehand. Nausea and fatigue are common, varying in degree and I didn’t have either at all.
From my own experience over 6 years ago, one of the lasting lessons from cancer is not to anticipate too much. There are so many unknowns that you can spend a lot of time planning for or worrying about something that never happens. Taking things step by step is hard, when so much is uncertain but it does actually help.
Cancer treatment is do-able but it can use up energy, for family as well as the person directly affected. So focus your energy as wisely and lovingly as possible, seek and accept help wherever you can and look forward, not back. Very best wishes.
The hardest part is accepting that there may not be clear answers and that one person’s experience may vary widely from another’s.
if you think of not having cancer, but having one kind of a very large number of types of cancer it may help. Breast cancer comes in many forms and stages, treatments vary and so reactions.
Detectable cancer may be treated by surgery, chemotherapy or radiation but there is also the issue of cancer cells in the body, not yet detectable but potentially damaging. Chemo essentially hunts out fast growing cells that may cause problems further down the line and, we hope, kills them. It’s not a subtle process and it has implications but to date it’s still an effective tool in the armoury .
The type of chemotherapy will depend on the precise nature of the cancer and possibly on the preference of the oncologist, based on knowledge and experience. You will know much more once you start as it is very hard to predict reactions beforehand. Nausea and fatigue are common, varying in degree and I didn’t have either at all.
From my own experience over 6 years ago, one of the lasting lessons from cancer is not to anticipate too much. There are so many unknowns that you can spend a lot of time planning for or worrying about something that never happens. Taking things step by step is hard, when so much is uncertain but it does actually help.
Cancer treatment is do-able but it can use up energy, for family as well as the person directly affected. So focus your energy as wisely and lovingly as possible, seek and accept help wherever you can and look forward, not back. Very best wishes.