I don't think anyone is ever "prepared" or "ready" to hear that they've been diagnosed with cancer. I know that when I was diagnosed on June 24th with breast cancer I felt as though the world had stopped. I can remember my doctor calling me to tell me and my trying to reach my mother to tell her, but my fingers wouldn't work right. I couldn't think straight. It felt like of those scenes you might see in a movie, where everyone else around you is going about their day like normal, and your just standing there frozen.
Breast cancer is not something that has run in my family, however I have learned that 80% of the women diagnosed come from families with no history of it. How shocking is that? Although no one deserves this. I had a lumpectomy two weeks ago. A wonderful surgeon who got all the cancer, I am cancer-free! However, because they found it in one of my lymph nodes (and they were removed) I have to go through both chemotherapy and radiation. I call it "bringing out the big guns." This will start second week of September for me. I am meeting some amazing women. My sister survivors - I don't think I could get through this without their support and my deep faith in a God who says "The number of my days He will fulfill." I always loved life - it was like a "water color painting." Now the colors are even MORE vibrant than before. I am determined that this will ONLY be a chapter in my life - NOT my life and I will "pay it forward" and help someone as I have been helped. I look forward to that day.
East Greenbush, NY