How big is your whale?

Well, it's been close to 4 years now and there's still a shark here - not a great white- but still with the potential to bite. I keep glancing over my shoulder hoping that it's not stirring.

Guppy-sized would be great.

PS: I love your sense of humour. (and your DH's)

RG ... it's been 8 years for me.  I promise, as time goes by, the great white will become a little goldfish.  It never completely goes away, but a goldfish is manageable. It will fit inside a little aquarium in your house.

I don't know how long it takes ... I can't remember, but I know it helped when my appointments were moved to every six months instead of three and my mammograms are now once a year.  I think about the cancer coming back frequently, I just don't talk about it or stress about it as much I did the first year or two.  I rarely talk to DH about these things anymore ... just sometimes, especially if a friend I've talked about has a recurrence. 

You're only 10 months out from diagnosis ... Realistically, I'd say it takes longer than that. Just keep living your life one day at a time and you'll get there.

hugs

Bren

Mine is a whale .. a smaller one, but still a whale.

I'm 16 months out and finally one week past exchange surgery. I finally feel like I might feel better after all, that I really will be able to put most of this behind me. My social worker said 18-24 months. She's been spot on about everything else so I believe her.

So I guess my fish is a smaller than a whale now, I don't know, maybe a mako shark? LOL. I'd like to think of it as a dolphin...because I know a dolphin would never hurt me

I am almost 2 months from diagnosis. 6 weeks post surgery, 8 days awat from chemo....right now it is a blue whale. After 1st time and I know how I will react I hope it shrinks.

tjh, every new thing scared the shit out of me - and then it was behind me. You are right, the fish will shrink a bit once you know what to expect from chemo.

Brookside - I'm glad your fish has friends to keep him busy so he doesn't bother you!

amen....

Hi RG - am totally gobsmacked at the financial stats on Komen and thank you for the great link.

I donate to cancer "charities" and entities who help children in dire health. I guess I need to check charity navigator more thoroughly and look at administrative costs too.

We need more money going towards research, not fat compensation packages for "executives" who are making a cushy living on the misery of our reality.

Of course, politicians don't care but hey, if it's NFL concussion, that's a bigger priority for a vastly smaller group of.....males.

When I had surgery I received a questionnaire from the North Carolina Tumor Registry advising me to complete and return as it was important to tabulate statistics. I guess that sums it up.

I was diagnosed on 4/29 and I have a huge whale in my life! I do not have all my pathologist results back yet and I do not have a date for surgery or know any other treatment I may need! It is all I think about day and night. By comments on this post, I guess I have a very long road ahead of me.

The passage of time can definitely shrink your whale down to guppy, minnow, or even krill size; but, you know, it's starts out as BC vs. your body but then it ends up BC vs. your mind. After all the active treatment, and various stages of horror along the way, a person really has to actively move their mind forward too. How to do that? Well, it is an individual process and good luck figuring it out. How long will it take? Again, each person is different. In sticking with the analogy of the OP, your mind has to be the harpoon. (Please don't get me in trouble with Greenpeace, because I'm not talking slaughter here, just a few shrinkage harpoons, that's all!)

To get my BC into the little fishbowl, it took another bigger, more ferocious cancer whale to breach into my life. Nothing makes you put a life-threatening disease out of your mind faster than an even worse life-threatening disease, unfortunately. Although ridiculously effective at diminishing almost all thoughts of BC, I cannot recommend this method to anyone.

Besides getting the upper hand over cancer in your mind, try to get your body back to feeling as good as you possibly can. The better and healthier you feel, the easier it is to make BC a thing of the past. Getting a few clear scans really helps too. I am sorry if this post sounds kind of generic or vague. All I know is I am almost 6 years out from BC, and just over 2 years out from the other, and I feel pretty good. (*) I've got my two whales tamed, harnessed up, and I'm riding the waves on a huge clamshell, like the star attraction at Sea World!!!

(*) That's not any drugs talking either. I'm not even Tamoxifed any more.