I work in a hospital, which means I see a lot of sick people. Over the past year and a half I still haven't found a way to not take it personally when a patient with breast cancer comes in. Your always rooting for your patients, but perhaps for these I am rooting a little harder.
These fighters with their peach fuzz and sometimes devastating stories make me so grateful. I am grateful for the way everything turned out for me. I am grateful that that PET scan was clean. I am grateful that the CT, mamograms, bone scans and physical exams have all come back clean. I am grateful that a week from tomorrow it will be a year that I completed my treatment. I think because these women remind me of the other side of cancer. The nasty disease that people battle for often years and undergo much much more treatment than I can even imagine. I think that is why I root for them just a little bit harder.
Sometimes that lock box in your mind, where you keep your fear of recurrence, sometimes that door creeps open. That door creeps open when you visit these patients and read their stories.The door creeps open when it's the Olympics and the last time the Olympics were on you were being biopsied, scanned and diagnosed. But, each day that you put between you and cancer treatment and each time your able to help your patients in their journey helps to close that door.
What also helps keep the lock box closed is when you have interactions with new members of your track club. One of the new members came the Tuesday after I finally got back on track. Everyone had come over to say congratulations.
Newbie: "Did you PR or something? How come everyone is congratulating you?"
Me: "No PR. It was my first race back since beating cancer"
Boom. Lock box closed.
You know what also helps, this ad that is playing constantly during the Olympics. I love it.
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