Tag: Unknown

Finding A Path Through It

There are few things more terrifying than the unknown.

I experienced this with my cancer diagnosis, although it would be the same with any catastrophe that significantly alters your life, such as losing a job when you’re already financially strapped. You’re hit with the news and then…everything stops. It doesn’t matter who else is talking or what other information is relayed, because the gravity of the situation stops up your ears and you hear nothing else.

A powerfully negative event throws up a wall that you cannot see around. When the future is undefined, it can take any form. This is a positive and liberating concept when you’re embarking on a new venture — “the sky’s the limit!” But in the case of something that’s painfully life-changing, our minds race to frightening prospects, often culminating in a terrifying extreme that we can’t see our way out of.

This is where you pause and breathe. Get your facts together and see what your options are. Things get easier when the darkness in front of you parts and you see a path to follow. After my cancer diagnosis, it was when I met with the oncologist who explained the possible variations of my condition, what the treatments would be for each, and yes, even what the potential outcomes were.

Once you get a grip, the climb gets easier.

Sitting there, digesting the information, I finally felt like I had something to hold on to. If the diagnosis was a hulking monolith, smooth and slippery, blocking my way, my doctor’s words gave me handholds with which to climb.

Right then, the future looked more manageable. I still desperately wished that it had been different, but I saw the path through the ordeal and it gave me something to follow as I strode forward.

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April 27, 2017 was a Thursday. It was also the day of my first chemo infusion. If you’ve ever gone through chemotherapy, you’ve sat through the full disclosure of all potential side effects. There’s so much that it can be disorienting.

But on that Thursday when my husband and I went to the infusion room, I learned that there was a process. Everything doesn’t hit you at once, you take it in steps as you make your way down the path.

I’m still walking. But at least I’m still walking.

Cancer Patient vs. Cancer Survivor

This was the situation: I finished chemo, finished radiation. I had gotten to bang the “Whoopie! I’m done!” gong in the radiation oncology patient waiting area — very satisfying. I had my “exit interview” with the cancer staff. The worst was over.

Every cancer patient looks forward to the end of treatment and a clean bill of health. As a matter of fact, I’d been so focused on finishing that even when I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, I really couldn’t see past that point. Chemo was the monster that consumed me. I had dreamed about the end of treatment for weeks and weeks, trying to hold on mentally until that final infusion, and after that, the last radiation appointment. Finally, that day had come.

However, I still parked in the familiar “cancer patient” spots in the parking garage that allowed me quicker access to the hospital buildings, a necessity on busy days when I needed to get to my appointments promptly. My chemo port was still in because I would be receiving Herceptin (monoclonal antibody) infusions for about six more months, and even though Herceptin doesn’t have noticeable side effects, it had the potential to affect my heart. 

So was I well? Was I sick? The tumor was gone, the treatment was over, my scans had come back clear, but the questions remained. My sense of self had experienced a powerful upheaval during treatment and I felt lost. As much as I hated it, I’d become comfortable with the idea of being a cancer patient. That was the known. The unknown was what came after that. 

Okay, where to now?

The unknown is scary and the uncertainty doesn’t simply go away. When you’re a patient, your medical team works out a plan based on your specific situation, and that’s your roadmap for the length of your treatment. When you pass into survivorship, you travel off the edge of the map. The remission rate for breast cancer is remarkably good, but it’s not guaranteed. 

At some point, I left the map. I have the rest of my life to get comfortable navigating through what comes next.