In a few short weeks, it will be two years since I started my journey as a breast cancer patient. It has been a life experience I could have never imagined, had I not been diagnosed with the disease.
Last year at this time, I was winding down my radiation treatments as part of my ongoing battle to fight breast cancer. I was looking forward to moving on with my life. I started resuming activities like going to the gym for daily workouts starting on January 1, going through rehab to regain the use of my body post-treatment, and eventually returning to work this past fall.
In January 2011, I began taking Tamoxifen, a cancer drug that is used to block the production of estrogen, which forms cancer cells. I was hopeful that my body would accept the drug without complications. It did for a short while until March, when I started to have complications that I should not have had with the drug.
My doctor and I monitored the symptoms for a few months. I underwent a gamut of diagnostic tests and watched to see what would develop. In September, another complication surfaced, and a specialist was consulted. A decision was made to act quickly to treat the complication, so that I could continue to use Tamoxifen. I was scheduled for major surgery to remove organs at risk in developing cancer.
The surgery took place in early December. Even though, I had been in excellent physical health prior to the procedure, the bounce back has been brutal. It has been a trying time physically, mentally, and emotionally. And like the earlier treatments I had, this one too posed rare complications, which I am being tested for, and await results for treatment.
This latest cancer prevention treatment has been a setback and a disruption—particularly because I finally returned to work in early October, ending the last piece of unfinished business in my life post-treatment. I hope to “begin again” at work by the end of January.
As frustrating as this is, a medical mentor of mine, who is a cancer survivor, comforted me a few weeks ago. “Once you’re a cancer patient, you are always a cancer patient. It doesn’t end. This is a part of living with the disease. Your life will never be the same, this is your new normal.”
This latest treatment, coupled with the news these past two months that three friends of mine are in active treatment for breast cancer, is yet another reminder that the lives we live are often take for granted. As a breast cancer survivor, who is now journeying with friends through their treatments, I am reminded again how fragile life is.
The gift of life—my second gift of life, compels me to keep fighting and continue living this new normal life, with Strength, Courage, and Determination.