Surreal

Hi, I think everyone has their own coping mechanisms and you need to go with what works for your own mental health.

I was diagnosed in 2023, had a single mastectomy and lymph clearance. I considered myself lucky that I was able to have immediate reconstruction. I went on to have chemo, radio and further surgery.

Those first initial months are an absolute whirlwind of information, tests, decisions, it can almost be too hard to breathe. My personal way of dealing with things was just one day at a time, step by step. I only ever found out what I really needed to know (to this day I couldn’t tell you what type/numbers/letters my cancer was), I just felt I didn’t need to know. There is so much to cope with and none of that jargon makes any sense to me and to be honest I felt I didn’t need to make sense of it. It was there, there was nothing I could do other than show up where and when I was told! But everyone is different some people’s way of coping is to know every tiny detail.

I remember having a meeting with my oncologist who was telling me various things and he could see I wasn’t really taking it in. I simply said ‘I don’t really need to know the ins and outs as that’s what you are dealing with fabulously for me. I just need to know if i’m going to fall off my perch in the near future?’ He laughed and said I’d be ok as long as I wasn’t planning on picking a fight with a bus!

It is such a long journey, one i’m still on but i’m grateful each day to still be here. There is plenty of time to find out all of the finer details if that’s what you need, but for now, take each day as it comes, move through it all as gently as you can and deal with it how works best for you. Don’t worry about other people’s questions, just say I don’t know and that’s the way I want it for now.

Take care of yourself, get plenty of rest and I know it’s a boring one but gentle exercise and lots of water help keep things ticking along x