Pearls Of Wisdom

In my first blog in 2010, I am once again turning my attention to the very important topic of survivorship. Although I did not get any survivorship stories from my bloggers out there in “blog land,” I went on my own search for them because I know there is great strength in the telling of one’s story and the effect it has on another survivor could be profound and enlightening. Survivorship remains an important concept in cancer care because after all it is the aim of early diagnosis and treatment – improved prognosis for survival. I wanted to know 1) the survivor’s diagnosis and date of diagnosis; 2) what important lesson was learned along the journey; and 3) what pearls of wisdom would you share with patients, who are newly-diagnosed with cancer. Here are a couple of stories from survivors I interviewed:

Maria said, “I was diagnosed in 1998 with Stage One Breast cancer and chose to have mastectomy to be sure of clear margins. Along the way, I learnt that when you are hit with challenges in your health, you can find strength in everyone around you. My pearls of wisdom are that one must sort through one’s life and the things that are important and to overcome those hurdles of fear, denial, anger, depression, acceptance in order to move forward. Make everyday of your life count because life is too short not to enjoy it.”

Vickey indicated she was diagnosed with two different cancers, in 1981 with squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva and in 1992 with breast cancer. She went on to say that along the way she learnt the value of having close family and friends to accompany her to the doctors and take notes. “I gathered the information and opinions from professionals, not rumors, and then decided for myself about what was best for me. My pearls of wisdom are to take time to make your own decisions about your treatment and survivorship – the cancer did not occur overnight.”

I thank the survivors for their stories because often we hear the word “cancer” and we don’t always equate it with survivorship. So as we begin the 2010, I want to challenge you to think about life and how we can make the most of our lives as Maria said. I hope you all had a wonderful Hanukkah or Christmas and for those of you still celebrating Kwanzaa, have a wonderful Kwanzaa celebration. I wish you all a Happy New Year. Be safe and come back with more stories to celebrate life.

Tags: cancer survivors, cancer survivorship, survivorship

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Cancer Support. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.