Do you ever feel physically ‘normal’ again?

Hi Sarah, you have done really well and you are now in the 3rd part of the cancer journey and that part 'post treatment' can be as hard as the first two put together,

"Do you ever feel physically ‘normal’ again?" is your heading to your post........ and I can truly say that you can get back to normality...... but you may well find what you though to be normal is no longer part of your life now. I think walking a treatment journey makes you review life and what is important. 

Yes you have to accept that recovery takes time. My head Consultant told me that going through Lymphoma treatments was like doing a boxing match and a marathon every day you were on treatments and this was all done without any training…… so no wonder it takes time to recover.

She also said that it was very important to keep simple regular activity going, even although you will feel worn out after these. But this helps overcome some of the fatigue and most importantly helps reduce the massive muscle wastage that happens because of inactivity and in turn helps speed up the post treatment recovery.

Aches and pains are just part of the this recovery process. I had malice muscle wastage and nerve damage so it took some work to get over this and it only happened when I got proactive. Being proactive helps when not have a look at doing the Life your Life course that Lymphoma Action do online at the moment.

I did the Maggie's Centre "where now?" course and that was a great steppingstone to get my headspace sorted out. I was also doing a weekly circuits class in the centre where we were given directed exercises to work on our problem (aches and pains) areas.

As for the anxiety...... and to be totally honest and this will sound very simplistic, some would even say naive..... The one thing I learned very early on in my 22+ years living and being treated for my cancer was that I could throw ALL the worry and stress I could collect in the world at each situation and all this effort would actually make no difference what’s so ever to what I am told and what may happen in the future....... but will have a big effect on how I will mentally deal with it ‘if’ it comes along. park the stress, worry when you actually have something concrete to worry about and look to do things that you enjoy.

My amazing Specialist Cancer nurse of many years told me something very helpful early on…… The ‘cancer anxiety train’ is always sitting in the station....... but we can only get on it if we go to the ticket office and get a ticket....... don’t go in the queue and get a ticket.

((hugs))

Thank you so much Mike, your words as always are reassuring and make complete sense.

I really appreciate you and your support.

I think the reality of everything that has happened is starting to sink in, one day at a time I guess.

Sarah x

One day turns into a few day..... that in turn turns into weeks then months.

My same, very wise Specialist Cancer Nurse told me in the early days “Mike there are two days in every week you can’t worry about - Yesterday & Tomorrow. You can’t change what happened yesterday and can’t control what will happen tomorrow so live for today, tomorrow will take care of itself” and I found her words to be so true ((hugs))

Hi Sarah

Getting accustomed to being post treatment takes a bit of time. I'm about eighteen months post treatment and I am fine. There has been the odd blip re something that showed up at a followup scan ( not connected to the Lymphoma ) but that just needs a bit of monitoring. It probably wouldn't have came to light for years if I hadn't been getting the post treatment checks. 

What I am trying to say is while checkups are always a concern when they come around they are an opportunity to ask questions and follow up on any issues quickly. 

Like your chemo as time goes on you will get more used to things. You do get back to normal though it may be a bit different to your previous normal.