29/09/14 I was diagnosed with 'the dirty C word' at the age of 30. 2 days later I had a nipple sparing bilateral mastectomy with 18 Lymph nodes removed, 2 were found cancerous. The cancer was 30mm & oestrogen receptive. I did IVF & froze 4 eggs before starting 6 rounds of chemo in November. My last chemotherapy was on 19/02/15. 01/14/15 I started breath-hold radiotherapy at Peter MacCallum 5 days a week for 5 weeks. My last radiotherapy is on the 06/05/15!
For the most part of this crazy journey i've stayed pretty positive with moments of frustration. It's pretty rare for me to even think 'why me?' when i understand there are soo many people in the world who are worse off. There will always be someone else who is worse off than you. I also have a pretty good understanding that a lot of your suffering can be mental. The more positive you are, the easier it is to cope and for the people around you to cope.
There is still the odd day where I do find it pretty tough, especially when you're fatigued. Some mornings I don't want to get out of bed. I want to close my eyes and wake up to how things were before, or wake up when all these hospital visits are over.
I wouldn't say that I'm glad that this happened to me. What I do know is that, it's changed how I see things and a lot of people. I have a greater appreciation for the good people in my life and an even lesser tolerance for others. I realised that my time is precious and you just never know when something unexpected could take what is currently your life away from you or someone you love.
MELBOURNE, Australia
