Let's re-activate "Silver linings" topic!

Hi CaliKelly, 

Thank you for reviving this topic! 

We do hope others will chime in soon, It would be super to hear members silver lining stories. 

My silver lining is finding Callanish retreats. I discovered how many wonderful generous neighbours I had. I also managed to keep and love my chemo curls for almost 2 years.

Hard to believe this forum hasn't received more traction! I am 4 months post-chemo, 1 month post-radiation. When my hair started growing on my legs, I was in awe! I was so happy to shave it - I marvelled at my body regenerating itself. My eyelashes took a while but grew in thicker than ever, and my hair is incredibly thick. My hair has always been thick but it's crazy thick now!

One of the biggest silver linings for me is how much more expressive I have become, as well as my friends. We end our texts or phone calls with "I love you" and that makes my heart sing. I'm a lot closer to many of my friends and family as well.

I had zero appetite during chemo and even after, but now I'm ravenous. I am so thankful for that as I'm needing to put weight on.

The fact that I had zero complications all through AC-T chemo and radiation and my EF has been good for Herceptin is also a silver lining.

I'm back to work (very part-time) and really enjoy feeling useful. Next up will be volunteering, which I always enjoyed pre-diagnosis.

Every day I wake up and thank God that He has given me another day to enjoy! And autumn is so beautiful here in Southern Ontario!

I think that one of the reasons that this thread has not gotten more traction is that silver linings puts more of a positive spin on getting breast cancer than many are able to relate to authentically. So, in other words, being closer to friends and family are things that could have been achieved without having cancer. Maybe having cancer brought this issue to light, but cancer was not a necessary condition for it to arise. On the other hand, the joy of watching one's body return to normal is only possible because the cancer took normality away, for a while and for some people forever, but it would be hard to for me to call those things a silver lining. It's something for which I would simply be grateful, since I got a terrible disease.

I am one of the few people for whom regrowth of hair did not occur. However, I am grateful that I have moved through the psychological trauma of chemo-induced alopecia (universalis--all over my body), but I can't call the cost savings on haircare products/sevices a silver lining because, in reality, I want my hair back. I am grateful that I survived and finished chemo, in spite of two hospitalizations during treatment that, for a little while, caused me to question whether I would make it. I finished, and I am grateful. I am grateful that I now volunteer at a cancer hospital and help others through their traumatic moments and give them some glimmer of hope.

So, in the end, I am grateful for my overall healing but I just cannot quite consider it a silver lining...and I am a glass half-full person...just not a silver lining person because if it were not for cancer, I would have my hair and gladly pay for products/services. Before cancer, I already volunteered and knew the rewards, even it it was not at a cancer hospital. Cancer just revealed who I already was inside: a strong, confident, loving, adpatable, optimistic person of faith. If anything, I am simply more transparent about who I am...and, for that, I am grateful.

scrafgal has a good point, but I will buy into the silver linings. (...although the not having to shave your legs during chemo was a particularly good one for me ). To be honest, I pretty much despised my breasts before this whole ordeal and was not sad to lose them - so silver linings I can wear spaghetti straps now and don't have to haul those things around anymore!