My name Dianna and I was diagnosed 9yrs ago but havent really wanted to admitt I had cancer it took a long time to come to term with the word never mind the actual problem but now I accept it and.know there is not.a lot I can do but cope with it.
Hi Dianna Di64 and a warm welcome to this corner of the Community although I am sorry to see you joining us and to hear about the post treatment challenges you are dealing with.
I am Mike and I help out around our various Lymphoma groups. I was diagnosed way back in 1999 at 43 with a rare, incurable but treatable type of Low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma eventually reaching Stage 4a in late 2013 so although my Lymphoma ‘type’ my be different I do appreciate the challenges of this journey rather well.
Receiving a Lymphoma diagnosis, then navigating the treatment journey can be hard……. moving on post treatment can be just as hard.
I often talk about the concept that when we first get our cancer diagnosis we all get an invisible ruck-sack put on our backs.
We then walk through our journey including our treatments, clinics, blood tests, scans, side effects……. and unknowingly, we continually throw ‘stuff’ into the ruck-sack…… and the stuff builds up. It’s only when we finished our treatment (rang the bell) and look to try and ‘live’ life we realise that it’s not that straight forward.
This is due to the weight of the ‘stuff’ we have collected in the ruck-sack pulling us down…. stuff like pent-up anxiety and stress, the ‘what if’s’, the difficulty in seeing a way forward with life, the disappointments around how some of our family and friends supported us, the silly things people said during and after treatment….. the list goes on.
There comes a time when we hit ‘the wall’ and this is the point when this ruck-sack needs to be taken off out backs and over time cleaned out. It’s not an instant fix but a process…. but the healing process can only start when we are willing to do it and to achieve this we often need help so these are some links that you may want to follow up and see where you can find this help.
Have you had the opportunity to ‘talk’ this through and unpack some of the ‘stuff’ with someone?
Over my 24 years I have had multiple relapses but I am now 8 years out from my last treatment….. still no cure but I am just content to be in remission and my goal is to live as good a life as I can.
As a family we don’t let the Lymphoma journey define us……. We define how we live and don’t let the past and the unknowns in the future to define us.
What type of Lymphoma do you have?
Always around to chat this through more ((hugs))
