I too found life post active treatment very hard.I felt lost afraid and alone tbh.At my lowest point I managed to call the Cancer Council who arranged Cancer Connect within 3 days which was a turning point for me.A lovely lady from Queensland rang me who had had my type of cancer some years beforehand and spoke with me for an hour.The life In her voice as well as her conversation made me realise my life would continue and it was still good.I realised I had to look outside myself and I started to take steps to do so.
I joined a local breast cancer support group for a while.Most were many years down the track than me both since their treatment and in years.I listened to their stories .I learnt about Encore as well as an online course conducted by Flinders Uni to help with post treatment.I learnt about Look Good Feel Good .I learnt from one little remarkable lady in her 70s who was 20 years plus post treatment how she walked every morning at 6 am for an hour and how much it helped her. We live in the Hills btw too. What has meant the most however is to be able to walk about my community and see these women living their lives.
I started to participate on this blog rather than just read posts.The warmth and kindness shown to me has been heartwarming.I try to reciprocate now to help a little if I can. I find the acceptance on here and understanding quite special.
I have rattled on a lot on here about walking which I do daily for an hour as I find it helps a lot both with how I feel emotionally as well as physically.I hasten to add I have never been athletic . I am on Letrozole as am Er+ and it also helps with joint pain.
We have both been lucky to have support systems that rallied during treatment - not all do.However we are expected it seems to return to our previous lives yet the experience we have had has changed how we feel about ourselves - it has been a big blow to our confidence. I don’t think we can change others but we can ourselves by opening ourselves up to new people and activities like I mentioned above.It does not mean we abandon our previous life but just modify it .Now my family regard my daily walk as normal and my husband is used to me tapping away on this blog .There are many of us out there going thru similar feelings - share with us as we get it and there are many ways to do this.
