My mum has breast cancer

controlseeker

Hi,

I was just informed a few hours ago that my mum has breast cancer.  Not knowing how I should feel or what I should do, I turned to my usual source for help and information, a public forum.  I was in a state of shock after having been told, but as I usually do, I'm getting over it quickly.  I'm usually of the mindset that I won't bother worrying about something until I know exactly what I'm dealing with.  My parents don't tell me much out of pride and as a way of sheltering me so I really don't know much of anything that is going on.  What I have been told is that it was caught very early, but more tests will need to be performed and could take as much as 6 months before the tests are complete and treatment can begin.  The doctors think that it should be as simple as cutting out the infected area.  I hate to treat a human life as a statistic, but it sounds as though breast cancer is a lot more common than I had realized but also has a very good track record for being cured.  Please bear with me if some of my comments seem ignorant, I haven't had long to research but needed a place to voice my experience.

As I'm prone to depression, I deal with troubling events by planning out how I will handle myself in the upcoming months.  I definitely won't be ignoring the elephant in the room, I will be hugging my mum and helping her out whenever I can, at the same time, I want to think about the implications as little as possible and keeping living my life normally, as if nothing is wrong, unless I am told otherwise.  I feel this approach seems cold, but at the same time, I can't see how getting myself depressed is going to help my mum either.  What are your thoughts on how to handle the situation?

Papillon1

They caught it early, that is brilliant.

I have the same coping mechanism - I read a lot to prepare myself. It's like the more I read, the more I will cope. Like if you see the scary picture enough times it won't be as scary in the end..not sure it will work like that but it is the only way I feel I can do this.