All the pink banners, balloons, ribbons and such have come down… and yet I and thousands of other women still have cancer.
How nice it must be for those on Instagram or Facebook to be able to just scroll by a post about breast cancer and not give it another thought.
For survivors, we don’t get to opt out of cancer after October ends. It is in our every waking hour. I talk to other women and they get emotional five years out, 10 years out… do you know why? Because cancer never really goes away. It is terrifying for us, to think it may return and it may take us with it next time.
Sadly, I am finding more articles and stories about breast cancer swooping in, regardless of the stage at diagnosis and then the warrior passes in a few years. I don’t hear about the 20 year survivor stories anymore… what is going on??
This is really REALLY hard for me to wrestle, especially because I am the #choosejoy girl. How do you create a new normal when cancer is constantly haunting your future?
How do you care about the measly, petty stuff when you have much bigger fish to fry?
How do you listen to one more person complain about this that or the other when in the back of your head you are just praying you don’t get cancer ever again?
So yes, it is November 4th and I still have cancer. I still have to look at my scarred body day in and day out to be reminded of what I fought through. I have to try to wrangle my #chemohair and I have to deal with my #chemobrain on a daily basis. I have to fight the rage within myself because cancer is the devil and he sure does want to take a foothold on our life. He wants to bring me down. When I remind myself of that, it is much easier to get up, workout, eat better, be kinder, be more loving, be more intentional, to plan that trip to Europe that we’ve been talking about for 10 years… because all of those things will not let cancer win.
As we move into the rest of the year, please remember that cancer doesn’t go away just because breast cancer awareness month is over. If you haven’t found a place to volunteer or donate that would really be a blessing to your life, please reach out because I can help point you in the right direction.
If you are a fellow warrior sister reading this, I’m sure you understand where I am coming from. Above all beautiful one, God’s got this, He’s already won the battle. It is our job to spread the good news, to love our neighbor and to live the best life we can live. That is how we beat cancer. If you need more support, let's find you some tools.