Bouncing Back

sbelizabeth

You're welcome, L.  Congratulations on being right on the doorstep of finishing up rads, and I'm sending you hopes for blessings and peace right now.  The tough stuff is almost finished, then it's on to re-building a beautiful you!

And pass the vodka...

LKSHER

I definitely support you, winter and I understand your feelings.

I also truly thank sbelizabeth for her quick and thoughtful response geared to help me be able to sleep tonight.

Every single day I pray that we will all be okay.

Hey, I just made up a little poem by accident.....

Lily55

I think that at stage 3 we are all seen as at greater risk of recurrence than stage 1 but i have personally seen several node negative people, who are therefore lower stage, recur and get mets and node positive people do well. Statistics do not reflect other changes we may make to help ourselves, and i know of survivors who changed nothing but are ten and twenty years on, one even still smokes!!



So for me i think its a guessing game for each of us individually, all doctors can do is extrapolate from disease statistics not from people, if you see what i mean?

sbelizabeth

I absolutely see what you mean, Lily55.  I asked my MO about all of this once and she shrugged it off.  "If someone recurs, then it's 100% chance for them.  No recurrence, 0% chance." 

We are all warriors.  Not statistics.

wintersocks

Lily55, 

i entirely agree, I guess that is what my onc is doing.....but as you say in amongst the statistics is an individual.  The two are really opposing forces.

That is where the difficulty is. Where to place ourselves in that, that is the uncertainty/unpredictability that I speak of. it's really hard. I am not going to be 'blind' to possible recurrence, neither do I want to immerse myself (every day) in that possibility. 

BC really is a rollercoaster of a disease, even when we get off following treatment being concluded (we never really get off). At least I don't. others manage that better perhaps.

Lily55

WS i dont place myself in it as i am a person not a number - to hijack The Prisoner a little! Other than when a scan or test is pending i try to live life as best i can, i wish i could be better on diet thani am as i do believe that makes a difference. But its a rocky ride some days,i am not the same woman at all....

lkc

Lovely Ladies. If I could add... I am the tiny mouse in the corner, the elephant is LONG gone. In the early days we latch on to anyting that remotely addresses our recurrence chances. We are so vulnerable and anxious it is perfectly normal to have these feelings of anxiety. What helped me was though  was as a stage IIIC  with nasty a** prognosticators, I knew I would get very aggresive treatment. I adored and trusted my On ( he was also my mom's onc, so we went back awhile) The aggresive tx did help , I think overall. While we may get the sink thrown at us, lower stage ladies may not have these options and may experience a  recurrence or not. After completing surgery, chemo, and radiation the reality  is we have over 80% of beating this. 

As I said earlier I am now the mouse. I don't wake up anymore with thoughts and fears of BC. I am enjoying my life more richly then before. I laugh and pray everyday.

I wish you all better and calming  days ahead. They will come before you know it!

wintersocks

Lily,

Me neither! 

You are doing great, better (much). I can see that as we were both dx at the same time.

I have seen you get stronger as the year has gone on - honest.

Always loved your feistiness (sp) too!    

pupfoster1

YIKES LKsher,

That was NOT the original intent of this thread at all!  After a while you'll see a lot of that happen here.  A thread will take a different angle than the original issue at hand, but we all can find some commonality here.  NONE of my docs EVER said any of that to me.  My onc never blinked or even questioned things like reconstruction or when I could get my port taken out (she said the week you are done with chemo---hurray)! 

Yes, sometimes even coming here can scare you too.  I've had to step back from time to time because I needed to.  But I always seem to come back here because I know you all "get it" and hopefully perhaps I can give back some of that encouragement I've received here as well. 

On that note I see you are still very early on in your journey, and things DO get better!  So hang in there and do what I do with the TV or the radio.  If I don't like what I'm seeing, I change the station!

Take care,

Sharon

LKSHER

Thank you, Sharon, Lily, Linda and everyone. There certainly is a lot of love around here and that definitely helps.