Work - how much are you into it?

Hi Lee! I am a teacher who was diagnosed at the end of the school year last year. I spent the summer vacation going through chemo. I didn't go back to work until January after my bi-lat mast. I was SO happy to be back. It was really hard, and I have had times when teaching has just been too much and I didn't want to do it anymore, but I was grateful to be healthy enough to go back. It gave me a new appreciation of just being able to get up and go to work! I did have to take it slow and make sure that I didn' t overdo it. Going back to work was the best distraction for me from this shit that we are dealing with. I don't ever forget, but when I was with my kiddos my mind was occupied with things other than bc. I am not as organized now, I am forgetful and have to make notes to myself on everything, and I had to find some creative ways to wear my hair (which grew from stubble in January to a real hairdo by June!). My kindergarteners knew what had happened, but most just thought l liked reallllllllly short hair! Now that I am on vacation again (more surgery...) I find that I am thinking about bc more. Keep busy, get distracted, work may be the answer for you! Oh, and yes my attitude has changed, but I didn't want to change jobs. I can totally see where if you have been unhappy (job, hubby...) that bc makes you re-evaluate your priorities. My favorite motto now is "Life is too short to _________ (dance with ugly men, drink bad beer, not have fun.....) )

I worked through surgeries and chemo.  I'm about to start rads.  I am a social worker and I am not nearly as anxious and driven as I used to be.  Cancer tends to put everything into perspective.  Now, if something goes wrong at work I don't get too stressed.  It's just not worth the energy.

Pre cancer I was a slave to the world of retail.  I managed multi million dollar high fashion stores, and was responsible for 20 employees and I was only in my early twenties!  I was an overachiever, who never took two days off in a row, and worked weekends and holidays.  I made a lot of money for the people I worked for and at the end of the day the stress from my 3 hour commute in and out of manhattan, and feeling like I had no life, left me wanting change.

But, the health insurance was a god send.  When I got cancer the company was amazing, giving me vacation, FMLA and then short term disability.  I went back to work after chemo and reconstruction, while I was still doing Herceptin.  When I went back it was different.  I did argue to work in Long Island to elliminate the commute from my lifestyle. When I went back 10 months had passed, and so much had changed.  I had to take a step back and a small pay cut in order to get my bearings again.  I was miserable.  I went back to being the same over worked, under appreciated employee, and although I was achieving more at work than I ever had in the past, I was miserable.  I would come home at night, and ask myself why did I beat cancer, to only go back to this miserable life?

And it was in that moment, where I sat within myself, and really figured out what I wanted to do that my life changed.

I made a plan.  I wrote down what I wanted.  I wanted a real man, a job where I actually made a differnce in the world, financial freedom, a new car, and regained life purpose.

While you may snicker at wanting a man, and a car, writing it down made it very real for me.  Once I started realizing that I had to live this life for ME, and be true to what my heart wanted, the universe started making things happen.

It almost seemed out of the blue, but I got the man first, then I posed half naked in two major magazines talking about my cancer, from there landed speeches at different cancer events around the country, and from there, the idea to create breastreconstruction.org was born.  I got out of debt, got the car, and still have a plan going for the future.

Has it been easy? HELL NO.  Is it all worth it? HELL YES.  Every tear I cried, all the sweat from hard work (and hot flashes), and feelings of defeat and hopelessness were all worth it for what I've received in return.

You have to look within yourself and decide that you deserve to have a better life.  Then you have to get busy and make a plan.  Make a contract with yourself to be a risk taker, and give yourself permission to fail along the way, as long as you take with you a valuable lesson.

If you are miserable, then make a change.  If you think you should be living a fuller life, than make it happen.  Ask yourself what your legacy is.  For me, it's not about having children, or making money.  When I die I want people to say, that woman inspired me to be more. 

I believe that everyone has the choice to live their best life.  And it doesn't mean that there won't be serious road blocks along the way. 

There is a great quote that I live by:

"There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow."   --Orison Swett Marden

Be the change you want to see in your life...

I retired from my job of 25 years last summer.  I had no idea at the time that I would be dealing with BC just 6 months later.  Now that I've finished chemo, my life has settled down.  I honestly do not miss working, even though I thought I would.  I know some people enjoy working, or even need to work, during their tx's, because it helps them focus on something other than cancer.  For me, work would have been very difficult to juggle along with my BC treatments.  Now that I've finished tx (except for an AI), I have things I really want to do in my life--and my former job is not one of them.

otter 

I worked all during treatment.  I'm a 7th grade English teacher and, at the time, I was sooooo glad I did.  I needed to be around those kids and to feed of their energy.  Now tho - I'd love to quit my job.  I have a one year old, and I feel more this time what I'm missing with him.  I worry sometimes about the what if.  What if I'm not around when he gets older and I wasted the time I had with him by working.  But I can't live in what ifs.

The other fact is - I don't love my job like I did but I'm at a loss as to what to do.  I took a class this summer to get my media specialist license but I'm not at a place to want to be back in school.  Again I'd rather be spending time with my kids and not yelling at them to leave me alone cuz I have homework to do.  What a way to waste time with them!  So that's on hold for now. 

What i've done instead is looked for ways outside my work to enjoy life more.  I'm running again.  I started violin lessons (I'm awful!) and I shut the tv off more when the kids and I are home.  i've also signed up to be a Chemo Angel again.  That kind of stuff.  Things to focus more of my contentment on beside my work.

So to answer your question - no career changes but I have made changes in how I enjoy the rest of my life.

OMGosh 3 of them!!!!!!!!!!!!  They are so darn cute!!!! I love bichons except that ours is really dumb - I mean dumb.  I got lost in the kitchen once when the lights were out!

I worked through chemo and rads. Really liked my job, not love , but like. Now I'm there because I need to be there. Money and all that stuff. I look forward to retiring, but I still have another 10 years to go.

My husband and I are self-employed, so I worked when I felt like it. While I was doing chemo, I didn't work too much---maybe 1 day a week. Finished chemo in March, then bilateral mastectomy and hysterectomy in April, and I'm working several days a week. I love seeing our customers. Gets my mind off my problems.

My friend with a couseling degree told me i have PTSD, for your family it's a bump in the road, now we are feeling better so everything is close to normal, for us it's OMG I'll never be the same again.  I am getting ready to change jobs.  I work in an office as a bookkeeper and can't wait til the day is over to get out of there! Loved it before BC.  Now I'll be teaching at my church's preschool and cleaning our church.  Makes me feel like I'll be doing something more worthwhile and not just making someone with lots of money more money.  I'm 42 and never have decided what I wanted to be when I grew up so i just do things that make me happy and pay the bills.  Fortuntely my husband carries our health insurance.  I'd like to be a waitress at some point in my life also kind of like my "bucket list"

peapot,

I had to laugh when I read you want to be a waitress at some point in your life:) been doing that since 93. Actually, I really enjoy my job, when I was diagnosed five years ago I couldn't work for seven months, it was hard physically to go back to work, just because it is such a physical job and you're on your feet with no breaks, but it's a fun job and the money's good.