Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A Message for Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients

The other day a friend posted a link on Facebook to an article on the Huffington Post. The article was Rethinking Societal Attitudes about People Who Get Cancer by Dr. Joseph Nowinski, a clinical psycologist. I thought the title sounded interesting so I read the article. Then I read it a few more times.

The article begins with a reference to 1978 when Susan Sontag wrote about myths surrounding cancer. Myths such as, we get cancer because we are angry and that diseases can be cured through will power. Then the article goes on to say that even today for some cancer patients, metastatic breast cancer in particular, there is still a social stigma. A stigma even though "cancer is not caused or cured by our personality." It went on to mention a patient with metastatic breast cancer who could not run a support group because it would cause fear in other patients, and who felt isolated because she had not "beaten" breast cancer because maybe she wasn't happy enough. The last paragraph states "perhaps the warrior metaphors we use to describe those whose cancer has been arrested are better replaced with images of possibility and tenacity."

I invite those metastic breast cancer patients to search for an ovarian cancer survivor to talk to. We may fight the battle with different chemotherapies and surgeries but we also know how to live with cancer. Live with not knowing if we will recur. Live with not knowing when we will recur. Live with recurring. Live with remissions - short and long. Live with not knowing if and when we will recur again. Live in constant chemotherapy. That is the life of an ovarian cancer survivor.

My gynecological cancer support group has newly diagnosed women , women currently with no evidence of disease , women in treatment for a recurrence and women in remission after a recurrence. Over the past 4 years we have shared our successes and our setbacks. We don't know why each of us was diagnosed with ovarian cancer but we offer each other support and hope. As one survivor's bracelet says - "Fight like a Girl ".

Metastatic breast cancer survivors you are not alone! There are ovarian cancer survivors with tenacity too!

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

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