The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it.

 ~C.C. Scott

I have been told that a Blog is your soap box and you can tell your story.  Well, here goes mine.

In everyone’s life certain things, good or bad, happen which should hopefully add to your purpose in life. I do believe that a hardship suffered only adds to understanding and empathy for someone you may meet along life’s path. I have always been a very positive person, with an outgoing sunny personality but my world came crashing down in 2011 with news no-one wants to get.

At the end of July 2011 I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer.  My first thought was ‘this is it, the end of the line, no more doing things I love and enjoy. What about my husband, how will he cope? I saw my mother die of Lymphatic Cancer 20 years ago and knew what to look out for but never thought I would get it. I tend to be like an ostrich sometimes and hide my head in the sand and hope bad things will pass me by, but the cancer did not.

I had my mastectomy in August 2011 and started my chemo at the end of September. Let me tell you, chemo is not for sissies.  After my first “red cocktail” my hair started to fall out in chunks. When this happened, unbeknownst to my husband Craig, I went to see his barber and asked him to shave my head. When Craig came home from work that evening, he was shocked to say the least but he quickly got used to the new bald me.

 

I am not an airy fairy type of person but did use visualisation when it came to my chemo. I considered each chemo a log I had to balance on while it was floating in a crocodile infested swamp.  The ‘crocodiles’ in this case was the depression that can set in. As soon as I managed to gain control of the log I would jump onto the next log (which was my next chemo).  After chemo I was very tired, would shuffle around the house like a little old lady and sleep a lot. During this time Craig was a rock and my place of safety. We would talk for hours, cry together and laugh together. He was always at my side for my chemo sessions. He even gave up a 6 week trip to Australia so he could be with me. And as one does when you are not feeling yourself I often asked him why he stuck around with me when I am so sick and he would always say “In my wedding vows I said I would look after you in sickness and in health, we are just going through the sickness part now. Health will come.”

 My oncologist had 8 sessions planned for me, one every 3 weeks. I only managed to have 6 because I was going into anaphylactic shock so we had to stop. Now the worry was did you get enough to kill the cancer?

One of the decisions I made at the time was that on my good days I would continue to work. I was very fortunate to work for a company that supported me all the way and my boss at the time, Wayne David, was always available with encouragement. Working half day helped me as I did not have time to focus on the negative but to look forward to getting up the next day and going to work, interacting with others and not falling into depression which is very easy to do. In the afternoon I was always tired and took it easy in front of the TV or reading a book.

In March 2012 I started with radiation. Once you have gone through chemo, radiation is a breeze.  The hospital where I went for radiation was only two blocks away from the office and I would quickly dash out daily to get treated. It took longer to undress and dress again than the actual radiation time. Because I am fair, my skin turned red very quickly and Craig had to pamper me daily with aqueous cream and cornflower starch (Mazina) which helped with the itchiness.

Currently I’m in remission and hoping to start a new chapter in my life.