A solid ten years of dreaming and planning finally came to fruition only to go up in flames thanks to a 30-minute doctor appointment on the Upper West Side. The culprit? Cancer.
Cancer Survivorship
Three days after Emily’s 19th birthday, she received the devastating news that she had stage 3 malignant melanoma, one of the most serious forms of skin cancer. She was given less than a 59 percent chance of surviving the next five years. In a state of shock, she felt her only options were fight or flight – to face her diagnosis head-on or to live in fear – and she chose to fight.
Young adult survivor, J.G., shares his experience with testicular cancer and how the largest, annual young adult cancer convention helped him get his life back on track.
Laurie Page of Cheektowaga, NY, was diagnosed in the summer of 2016 with a rare carcinoid tumor in her abdomen. The prognosis wasn’t good. “They didn’t give me long to live,” she said. “I was down to 92 pounds.” Page was referred to Roswell Park and received treatment under the care of gastrointestinal surgical oncologist Dr. Moshim Kukar, whom she calls a “miracle worker.”
Everyone has a story to tell. Whether on a first date, job interview or happy hour with a new friend, there’s always a select version of our story that we choose to share. It usually includes where we went to school and how we found ourselves where we are today.
I have been battling cancer successfully for 11 years. Looking back at my first diagnosis — stage 2 breast cancer, at age 42 — I downplay it now, because what happened next was so tragic.
The news that you are cancer-free can stir up many feelings — relief, exhaustion, excitement, apprehension — and you may wonder what happens next. Although you and your loved ones have worked toward and hoped for this outcome, there are many aspects of survivorship, and it may take time to adjust to life after treatment.
Regardless of how or when you choose to share your experience, remember that your voice could make a difference in someone’s life. All I can hope is that my words might reach another survivor and remind them that they are not alone.
When Ian Cherico was rushed to the hospital, he was in a fight for his life. “Minutes later and I could have died,” he says. Ian was only 17 years old at the time, and his body was shutting down. It all started with a headache he couldn’t shake.
What if a simple daily practice of clearing your mind and breathing slowly could help you feel better, sleep better, reduce pain and anxiety and reduce your risk of cancer recurrence?
Everybody has bad days, but nobody tells you how to handle them. The times where you feel hopeless, anxious or paranoid. When you feel angry that cancer will always be a part of your life, scared that it may come back or frustrated that side effects from treatment might never go away.
I hope you will take a moment to write down what you want your 2017 to be. And whether you are in the middle of treatment, completing treatment, or newly diagnosed, trust that you will get to a place where you can say, “I'm happy, and I am alive.”