#BreastCancerRealityCheck – Readers Share Realities About Life Post-Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Anyone relate?

Remember, sharing your truths doesn’t mean you aren’t grateful too. Two (or more) things/feelings can be true at the same time. Thank you for your honesty, Linda.

Update:  Linda’s cancer has since metastasized. She is now stage 4.

As Becky prepared for her recent CT scan, she shared about her reality preparing for it:

Me at this moment. Marked up with sharpies, drinking disgusting contrast fluids and about to have my 2nd CT scan…today. Not the least bit pretty!

Yeah, there is NOTHING pretty about breast cancer. I hope your scan went okay, Becky.

Alene, an oncology nurse, blogger, author, advocate and founder of Cancer Harbors, shared this:

As an oncology nurse, I spend so much time correcting people’s misconceptions about cancer, breast cancer and metastatic breast cancer that I am calling for a cancer literacy effort to educate the public, including healthcare professionals, because they need a #breastcancerrealitycheck too!

Alene works tirelessly advocating for all cancer patients. Read my review of her book, Navigating the C:  A Nurse Charts the Course for Cancer Survivorship. Her book is available here.

Claudia, who blogs at My Left Breast, shared her thoughts on October, recurrence risk and how she chooses to frame her cancer today in a recent post:

It’s now 8 years since my breast cancer was diagnosed, and I am much more cautious about how I speak of it or of my relationship to cancer. I no longer call myself a survivor. I say I’m NED (no evidence of disease), which seems to be a truer explanation of my situation…I did the numbers in my head. I’m on Tamoxifen, which hopefully keeps my cancer from coming back for at least another 2 more years. That gets me to 64 years old. If I have a recurrence after that, maybe I’ll have another 5-10 years, depending on where it’s spread. Which gets me to 69 – 74 years old, and that calms me down a bit.

Have you done that mental math exercise in your head too?

I have.

Susan has metastatic breast cancer. She blogs about it at Let Us Be Mermaids. Susan shared the following realities about her life living with mbc:

Some MBC realities I have been facing for the last 5 years include being in treatment for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, some treatments do not last very long and progression sets in. When this happens, it’s time to begin a new treatment. It’s a necessity to keep you alive.

Over 40,000 women and men die every year from MBC. Many friends are included in this number.

Clinical trials are not just last resort treatments. They give you access to drugs/treatments you would not be able to just get off the shelf.

Thank you for sharing, Susan. Remember to check out Susan’s blog!

Update:  Sadly, Susan died from metastatic breast cancer on January 18, 2019. She was just 53.

Susan R, another friend and fellow blogger at Stickit2Stage4 and President of METUP, shared this:

Not only is Metastatic Breast Cancer the most difficult diagnosis to come to terms with because it’s a terminal illness but as you’re living through it and trying to stay alive, you’re also having to watch your friends who are doing the same, die around you. You begin to feel an engulfing and overwhelming sense of guilt. While you should be happy your treatment plan is working, you end up suffering from Survivor Guilt, which for me, was the worst combination of depression and PTSD.

Survivor guilt is very real for many breast cancer patients, but as Susan poignantly points out, it’s especially difficult for our friends with metastatic disease. Thank you for sharing about this reality, Susan.

Janine chose to share about her dear sister for her #breastcancerrealitycheck:

I was diagnosed four months after my older sister died of metastatic breast cancer. Maureen Adele was her name. She was 53.

Janine and Maureen two weeks before Maureen’s death.

Thank you, Janine, for sharing about your beautiful sister. Too many continue to die from metastatic breast cancer.  Too many, just too many.

Marie writes the blog, Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer. She shared about a painful reality she continues to  live with every day since cancer:

The hardest part of my breast cancer experience is living with the legacy of infertility. I carry within me an invisible scar, a forever pain that is often misunderstood, minimized or ignored. While many women do go on to have families after breast cancer, this sadly wasn’t my reality. It’s so important that pre-menopausal women with a diagnosis of breast cancer receive timely information to support their decision-making around fertility preservation. For many women, the ability to conceive a child after breast cancer represents not only surviving the disease, but the fulfillment of their hopes and dreams for the future.

Marie’s comments are so moving and so important. The fact she feels her pain is often misunderstood, minimized or ignored breaks my heart and honestly, makes me a little mad too.

All scars are not visible, and often the scars we cannot see are the most painful and the ones that never fade.

Angela offered this:

You ask about our breast cancer reality now. I think I have too many realities now. I want more fantasy, damn it!

I always appreciate Angela’s humor and knew you would too. Her words seem like a good way to wrap this up. Thanks, Angela.

So, there you have a few #breastcancerrealitychecks from Dear Readers. Nothing pretty or pink in those realities.

Now, it’s YOUR turn to share!

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Did you see less pink ribbon shenanigans this October?

What are one or two (or more) of YOUR (or your loved one’s) breast cancer realities?

#BreastCancerRealityCheck – Let’s keep this hashtag going and not just in October!