Surgery today
I'm Amanda - I'm 38, a wife, a mother to three young children and on the 22nd of February I found out I had breast cancer.
Today I am having a mastectomy and axilla dissection. I am having a tiss...
Forum Discussion
Hi Amanda,
sorry to hear of your diagnosis, and I can fully understand your feelings re: everything moving at the speed of lightning. We dont have the luxury of getting time to digest what we have been told, it's just all systems go right from the beginning. In one way this is good, as it gives the medico's a chance to nip this disease in the bud, hopefully avoiding secondaries, but.......for our part, I think we would all like some extra time to try and sift through all the information, treatments, outcomes, etc.
Positivity is great, we all need it to get us through, BUT it is also allowable and completely understandable NOT to be positive sometimes. There is no getting around the fact, that we are all hurting - hurting for ourselves, hurting for what this disease does to our families and hurting over how long we will be around (my opinion anyway!)
I also believe in the power of the mind over illness (as someone else mentioned somewhere on this site) - but I also believe that we shouldnt be hard on ourselves if we lose that positive vibe for a little while. I am a realist and I know that all the positive thinking in this world is not going to make me better - but I also know that it can help me FEEL better - there is a big difference (once again, this is only my personal thoughts, but I think they are worth sharing),
If you havent been diagnosed with secondaries yet, all I can advise is that you dont waste valuable time worrying about WHETHER OR WHEN you will get them. After you have had time to recover from your surgery and your treatments start, just 'go with flow' and you will find that life will return to some sort of normal. You need to give yourself plenty of rest time, difficult I know with young children - but your body will tell you what you need to do. This may sound strange at the moment, but shortly you will understand what I mean.
Take one day at a time, and dont worry too much - we have all been where you are now and we are always here if you need someone to lean on!
Wishing you well with everything!
Di :)