Bridges Newsletter: Spring 2022, v. 56
| | Bridges Newsletter: Spring 2022, v. 56
If you have trouble viewing this email, view it online. |
|
| | | | | | | | Spring 2022, v. 56 | | | | CONNECTING CANCER SURVIVORS |
| |
|
|
| | | | | | An Unexpected Miracle | | | March 2019 changed my life forever. The telephone rang. It was my OB-GYN. My heart raced like a high-speed jet zooming through the wall of the sky. As I held the telephone to my ear, I took a deep breath. And then she said, “Brenda, you have been diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer.” A trio of doubt, fear, and uncertainty seized my soul. Cancer!
Fourteen months prior, I cared for a family member who later passed from cancer. And then, I experienced an epiphany, a spiritual strength, to face two choices, two paths, two proclamations: “Fight and live!” or “Give up and die!” I decided to fight. | | | | | | |
|
|
|
| | |
| | |
|
| | | Bridges: A Newsletter for Survivors | | | Bridges, Memorial Sloan Kettering’s newsletter for survivors, offers a forum where patients and their families can share stories of inspiration and hope, and of the challenges that can accompany a cancer journey. | | | | | |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
| | | | | Surviving Cancer Treatment | | I was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2012 and underwent a hysterectomy at MSK. Because of the detection of some cancer cells outside of my uterus, I subsequently participated in a treatment protocol of chemotherapy and radiation, which ended in the fall of 2012. My surgeon very astutely observed at the time: “Now, the real treatment begins.”
Since 2012, I have experienced a variety of post-cancer-treatment symptoms, which I have learned to live with through the help of the dedicated and creative staff of MSK, the support of family and friends, and my own spiritual journey. The stories of cancer recovery tend to focus on the thankfulness all of us survivors feel — on the beauty of survivorship and participation in life’s continued blessings. However, here, I want to take the time to bear witness as well to what it is like to live with chronic post-treatment symptoms.
| |
|
| | | | | Loving That Journey for Me | | March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month — a statement I may not have given a second thought to, until last year. Now, every day is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. At 38, on my way to an annual OB-GYN appointment, I told my husband to expect me home soon. At this visit, I first heard the word “mass,” a growth that should not be where it was. It was July 1. I remember dates now, something I never paid much attention to earlier. By July 22, my diagnosis was confirmed, stage 3 colorectal cancer, due to the size of the tumor.
Within the span of a few weeks, I — an active mother of two young children, used to watching my son play baseball and my daughter dance, and overseeing homework and playdates — started hearing words like “staging,” “radiation,” “chemotherapy,” and “colectomy.”
| |
|
|
| | |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
| | Want To Find Bridges Online? | | | We have over thirteen years of the quarterly Bridges issues available online. Go to the Bridges homepage for more information and to access the past issues. | | | | | |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
| | | | Personalize Your Updates | | | | Manage your preferences, and we will customize your updates based on your interests. | | | | | | |
|
| |
| |
|
|
| | | | | | |
|
|
| | |
|
| | | | To ensure you continue to receive emails from Bridges, add us to your address book or safe list. | | | | To unsubscribe, click here. This message was sent to newsletter@newslettercollector.com. | | | | To manage your preferences, click here. | | | | You are receiving this email because you subscribed to e-newsletters from Bridges. | | | | To forward this email click here. |
|
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
