Survivorship

"No amount of regrets or second guessing was going to change anything, but what was I going to make out of it?"

"We have to accept there’s no going back. It’s either lemons or lemonade."

"Throughout all of the treatment the hardest part was telling my children and parents."

"In late July I found a lump as I woke up — my hands were cold and I put them in my armpits. Found a lump in my right breast ..."

"I have almost forgotten that I went through breast cancer. Once in a while I think about a chance of it or another cancer reoccurring, but I just go on enjoying life and staying active."

“I am strong-willed and strong physically, which served me well during treatment and continues to serve me well. I am honored and grateful to still be here and be able to serve others.”

"My challenge 8 years later has been the thought of possible reoccurrence. My faith has helped me live each day and kept positive thoughts upmost on a daily basis."

"I had planted those carrots, but they didn’t sprout and grow in my time frames. They grew exactly when they should, how they should, in divine timing."

"I read one article about a woman who had ovarian cancer, and she said cancer has refined her. I resonated with her statement as I have changed many habits because of my cancer diagnosis."

"My doctors told me not to do crossfit and pole dance due to lymph dissection. I disagreed with them. I believed that I could start again."

"I can cry, laugh, love — all of it. Or I can let it strip away the beautiful being I'm becoming. They are my choices to make."

"One oncologist told me it was a big, ugly cancer. He also said sometimes the big ugly ones are the easiest to kill."

"My big fear came at every mammogram to follow for the next 5 years: that there would be a recurrence."

"Every twinge of pain or unfamiliar symptom reignites the fires of fear. Yet, standing strong in the face of uncertainty is the essence of resilience."

"I can still see myself sitting in that chair and the man that I thought was in love with me, and thought that were building a life. Then suddenly the bottom falls out of your life."

"Strength was the little engine that could. But this is not what I felt. Instead, with fear, nausea, and exhaustion, I was emotionally bare as my head."