The cancer I had is not at all equal to other people's cancer. I've never had to have chemotherapy; I haven't had to have a mastectomy.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
People tell you you're having chemotherapy, but there are different types of chemotherapy, and you don't know which one you're going to get and how it's going to affect you. The people in the hospitals don't always have time to help you understand it.
For most people, chemotherapy is no longer the chamber of horrors we often conceive it to be. Yes, it is an ordeal for some people, but it wasn't for me, nor for most of the patients I got to know during my four months of periodic visits to the chemo suite.
I had a prostatectomy in the fall and fortunately it was encapsulated and I didn't have to go through chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy isn't easy. I felt very fortunate I wouldn't have to go through that.
For me it was just more important to get the cancer out. With the double mastectomy I now have less than one per cent chance of getting it back, otherwise it was 20, 30 or 40 per cent chance and for me it wasn't worth it.
Chemotherapy isn't good for you.
Having cancer is a lonely experience. It is the one time in your life that you cannot ask those closest to you, 'What should I do?' It's too heavy a burden to place on another person. This is your life, your decision, and cancer kills.
I never thought of having cancer as something that was unfair. I just braced myself and tried to get through it.
Chemotherapy takes its toll; the more you keep doing it, you lose your energy, and it gets more difficult to swallow.
I had a mastectomy in 1998, and then chemo.