“The cancer is gone!
I declare you cancer-free! Go live!” The oncologist declared over me,
the support staff applauding. I simply
stood there looking at them blinking.
The nightmare was over? The fight had been won? Go live?
HOW.
HOW
For almost seven years I have tried to “Go live” but on the grounds
where the battle occurred – the scar tissue of a fight hard fought and won
unbeknown to me began to grow seeds of anxiety.How does one live after cancer? How do you put the fear and terror aside? How do you go forward knowing fully not only has your body changed on the outside, but you yourself has changed on the in? Your life as you knew it is not the same. Almost seven years later I am still trying to go forward.
There are days when I just want to burst out in tears of frustration.
Feeling like I’m on an escalator and I
don’t know where it is headed. Feeling
like I have no control. How does one “live”
when they are afraid? Living with fear
is a cancer of another kind.
Feeling the responsibility of being given a second chance at
life but afraid to make mistakes… When you go through cancer you are more
keenly aware of all the mistakes you made in life.
How do you get past the fear? Life has changed as you know
it. You are not the same person. The cancer is gone – but YOU remain. All you can pray in your head is, “God help
me to live. Help me to know how..." I don’t KNOW how… And you think that the
knowledge will come in time – but the truth of the matter is it doesn’t go away…
You learn to live with it. You choose
every day consciously to become better and not bitter. All of a sudden you feel like a different
species of human. Those who have gone
through the battle understand. Those who
don’t – can’t, you haven’t been where we have (and thank God you haven’t).
There are days when I wake up and I look around my life
astonished that it has changed so much. It all seems so surreal... Like I'm living a very weird unexpected dream...
A failed marriage, millennium children who think differently than the
children of my era; how do you get through it? By it? Around it? You have become a different person. The people you feel closest to are other
survivors who have gone through it. You
cling to each other’s hands like a lifeline.
“Don’t let go! I might sink without you!”
"I won't - don't let go of mine either!"
Strangers that have become closer than family.
You second guess every choice you make and you live in fear
or uncertainty that life will ever stabilize.
You feel like you are looking around every corner because once you were
taken by surprise and now that you know how that feels like, you sleep with one
eye open.
You love deeper and more passionately - it happens naturally because of what you've been through. I call it "bear hug love" - that's the only way you know how to those who are important to you and remain in your life... you try not to stifle or smother those you love because
you are afraid of losing them or afraid of having them lose you... They can't fully understand...
Before life everything was in water colors – now, post
cancer everything is in vibrant hues. Such an oxymoron of becoming stronger, yet feeling so fragile…
How do I live this life with so many emotions warring inside
of me? The truth is none of us is
promised tomorrow – but how can I NOT let that fear influence how I live today?
How do I fit all my living into each moment? How do I not allow the fear of “what could
happen” ruin my here and now? HOW?Tick tock goes the clock... Not to be taken for granted... What's around the corner? Don't think about it! Walk by faith and not by sight... Okay... Tick tock - what's around the corner? Even unspoken the thought goes...
LIVE! LIVE! LIVE!
I'm TRYING. I put my hands over my ears.. I hug myself closer to try and rid myself of the fear... I quote words of scripture God's promises to wrap around me... Picking up the shattered pieces of my life, trying to make sense of it all... Who am I? Why did this happen? How do I go forward? Stepping out on faith. If I take your hand will you hold it forever or will you simply let go? Tick tock... 7 years have gone by - how did they go by so fast? I'm on automatic pilot. Life has changed so drastically. Good things have occurred but still the uncertainty and fear and surprise of having had cancer never goes away. It NEVER fades away.
And my body temperature is cold ALL the time... "I'm cold Father... Help me..."
Anxiety, fear, depression – emotions you didn’t expect to
feel after the battle. I don’t feel
victorious. I feel timid. I don’t feel
like a winner, I feel small and afraid.
Like a deer who is caught in the headlights of a car and cannot move out
of the way.
I look toward my Pink sisters, other women who KNOW. Other women who understand. We are a sisterhood of survivors. We are a pink rover line holding each others hands we do NOT have the ability of letting each other go. We simply can't. We didn't ask to be in this line. We were drafted. The line is so long it seems unending. We CRY out together in unison, "We NEED a cure! God help us and every survivor. WE NEED A CURE."
God help me. This is
not how life was meant to be. Help me not to be afraid. Take my hand. Calm my soul. In my head I know
that NO one is promised tomorrow – but please don’t let that fear take away my
joy of today. If I allow that to be the
case then regardless of whether or not the cancer is gone – it has won. Because with it has gone my innocence. My carefree sense of being, please renew a
steadfast spirit inside of me and return to me the joy of my salvation and my
healing; the joy of LIFE.