The other side of breast cancer treatment. That’s where I am now. And grateful to be here. But every moment I’m here, I realize how little I understood about recovering from breast cancer — or any cancer for that matter. Do you know I truly believed as I headed into my mastectomy on September 26, 2016, that I would be “good to go” by Thanksgiving? And that all of this would be behind me?
Are you laughing with me? Or should I say at me? Go ahead. I’m laughing. If you’ve cancered, you know that is not even close to being the case for most of us. Here I am, just over two years out from surgery, and I am still dealing with post-cancer anxiety. And, I didn’t even know it was a thing that could be headed my way.
The anxiety didn’t hit me until my oncologist told me I was NED — no evidence of disease. That was late October 2016. Shortly after that appointment, I began to feel it, the fear, the panic. How did she know they got it all? What if I still had breast cancer? What if I get it again? What if she’s wrong?
I directed that panic into cleaning up my eating and my kitchen. Anyone who knows me knows I’ve been a pretty healthy eater for some time. But with the anxiety raging, that suddenly wasn’t good enough anymore. I needed to ditch every preservative. Every toxin. And, I needed to do it now.
Don’t even get me started on the plastics in my kitchen. They’re gone now, as you can imagine. Replaced with glass containers. But, one evening that December, I was on the edge of a huge panic attack as I poured my daughter’s nightly Zyrtec into a, oh yes, plastic cup. The security of having a clean kitchen suddenly vanished. I remember turning around in my kitchen and seeing all the other plastics that somehow I had missed — the salad in the plastic container, the baby carrots in the plastic bag. I couldn’t take it. I walked out. Because a clean kitchen was my shield, and it was just shattered. At least, according to my anxiety. And we all know it can trigger irrational thinking.
I worked hard on managing my anxiety as soon as it hit. In fact, managing my anxiety became my part-time, sometimes full-time job. I turned to holistic tools and booked my week with as many as possible. Support group. One-on-one counseling. Art therapy. Writing workshops. Yoga. Exercise. Acupuncture. Reiki. Mindfulness. Meditation. And even gratitude work. My dance card was full for months and months.
All of that did help me. Those are powerful tools. But the progress I made using them was shredded in August 2017 when I found out I needed a uterine biopsy. That’s when my anxiety became monstrous, and I was almost not functional. I started taking an antidepressant, which I still take. Thank goodness that biopsy came back negative. I could focus once more on healing and becoming me again.
Some time that fall I became aware of just how extremely healing connecting with others in the breast cancer community is to me. There is nothing like talking with someone who absolutely understands your experience and what you feel. So, in January 2018, I created a peer mentor group on Facebook called “In This Together Philly Wilmington.”
Working on this group is saving me. Connecting others to each other and to the resources they need, plus meeting them for group outings… it is like gold to me and managing my anxiety. It calms me and releases me to breathe just a little more freely.
Perhaps it’s because it gives me the feeling of putting some sort of order on the chaos that is cancer. Perhaps it’s because it makes me feel as if I’m protecting people from some of the pitfalls I faced. Perhaps it’s because of the incredible love and compassion that flows throughout the group. It doesn’t really matter why. My group just is my anxiety healer. My new shield I carry with me.
Today, as I write this, yes, I still feel the anxiety. But it is no longer front and center and defining my life. It’s been back-burnered. And hopefully, it will one day be gone. And I’m more engaged in my own life now and with the community than I’ve ever been. I’m doing more living in the moment and not in my head, where it can still be very dark. So, for me, for now, my other side of cancer lies with healing through deeply engaging. That is my path now.
Getty image by Malombra76
Hi, I'm a recent breast cancer survivor in Wilmington, DE., diagnosed in August 2016. I'm a mother of two loving daughters and wife to an incredible husband. I'm also the founder of the peer mentor group on Facebook called In This Together Philly Wilmington.
msarcich