Hi all,
26 when I was diagnosed, 27 now and in my first chemo cycle (EC). Tumor was hormone receptive and HER2-, so I know it could have been way more aggressive and I will have hormone therapy to help.
On good days I feel that getting cancer young will help me appreciate life and prioritise what is important. But bad days mean I wonder if I’m really fighting to survive… or if I’m just suffering to prolong the inevitable. Surgery had clear lumphnodes and clean margins, so I know I’m lucky, but I feel so certain it will get me before I can grow old that I can’t move past it.
There was “before cancer”, when I knew logically that I’d die one day but it felt inconceivable and almost theoretical. Now I feel like I’m living in the “after” where I will never feel safe and will be existing with a noose around my neck.
Does anybody have advice on how to mentally move past the bad days when you know you can’t actually “win” the fight?
Is there anyone that was diagnosed young who can tell me what it will feel like to try to live after treatment knowing I have so many years for it to recur?
Apologies for the morbid topic - nobody I know has faced it young.