The Secret Suckiness Of Life After Breast Cancer
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/10/176194/life-after-breast-cancer-survivor-story?
Forum Discussion
@Sarnicad - I just wanted to pick up on the fraud feeling you mentioned, that word struck me.
I think I’ve been made to feel like a fraud or something too, not for the amount of cancerous breast tissue that was cut out (I had a lumpie too) - but perhaps by the comments of some people I have talked to here and there. I’ve had so many conversations where someone will compare my Stage 3/bloody awful/destructive breast cancer to someone else’s brain cancer that they had an operation for, or someone’s ovarian pre cancer that they had to take some chemotherapy oral meds for, or someone’s whatever random cancer story. And not to ever take away from their stories...but after a while I got the impression that people had started to JUDGE my cancer against others, while never having personally gone through it themselves. And after a while I thought hey, maybe I had it easy, and my breast cancer is just a walk in the park on a sunny day. Maybe I am a fraud. Maybe I have nothing to complain about and this whole thing has been as easy breezy as a simple headcold?
And I think that’s the shitty insidious mind game this disease plays on us. Long long after the biology heals, the psychology is the most brutal thing. It’s not how much was physically thrown at you so much as how badly wounded your head and your heart got from it all.
I think I’ve been made to feel like a fraud or something too, not for the amount of cancerous breast tissue that was cut out (I had a lumpie too) - but perhaps by the comments of some people I have talked to here and there. I’ve had so many conversations where someone will compare my Stage 3/bloody awful/destructive breast cancer to someone else’s brain cancer that they had an operation for, or someone’s ovarian pre cancer that they had to take some chemotherapy oral meds for, or someone’s whatever random cancer story. And not to ever take away from their stories...but after a while I got the impression that people had started to JUDGE my cancer against others, while never having personally gone through it themselves. And after a while I thought hey, maybe I had it easy, and my breast cancer is just a walk in the park on a sunny day. Maybe I am a fraud. Maybe I have nothing to complain about and this whole thing has been as easy breezy as a simple headcold?
And I think that’s the shitty insidious mind game this disease plays on us. Long long after the biology heals, the psychology is the most brutal thing. It’s not how much was physically thrown at you so much as how badly wounded your head and your heart got from it all.