Tag Archives: Surgery for breast cancer

Cancer Lesson #22: The waiting is the hardest part.

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Cancer Lesson #22: The waiting is the hardest part.

The time between a cancer diagnosis and treatment is not unlike the final months of a woman’s first pregnancy. In both cases, you have no real idea what’s in store, but you know it will be challenging. And, just as no one can tell you what your labor will be like, neither can anyone can predict how you’ll handle surgery, chemo and/or radiation.

In the end, you just want to get on with it, reasoning that the sooner you begin, the sooner it will all be over.

Tom Petty’s “The Waiting Is the Hardest Part” played almost constantly in the back of my mind in the weeks leading up to my surgery, making it the second song in my “Cancer Soundtrack.

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Cancer Lesson #18: All cancer patients have a date with destiny.

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Cancer Lesson #18: All cancer patients have a date with destiny.

I believe there comes a time in each patient’s life when s/he is excited to get the date of his/her surgery and/or commencement of treatment. My particular date was Wednesday 27 April 2011, and I was thrilled to be getting the show on the road.

Before that, I had a minor “date with destiny” in the form of my plastic surgeon, Dr. K2. By then, I had to decide if I was going for the vavoom factor or a more natural look.

When I wrote about this in my blog, I said, “That’s w-a-y more than you needed to know, right? And yet, I feel so unrepentant.”

I refuse to be embarrassed by the things I wrote then and am writing now. I’ve shared my cancer lessons because it’s important for others to realize this is something they can survive. And face it, there are a lot of bizarre things about being treated for cancer. How could I not write about the experience?

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