Impromptu vs Scheduled Support Group

On Monday, while in one of the ICU's two of the RNs who are breast cancer survivors hunted me down for an impromptu breast cancer treatment notes comparison. One of the nurses is 10 years into survivorship and the other is 2 months in. We compared notes about the medications we take, and both wanted to run down on the PRESENT trial. The nurse who is 10 years out says that she still struggles with waiting for the other shoe to drop, but that the feeling isn't as strong as it was the first year out. The nurse who is 2 months out is struggling with lymphedema. Her and I discussed how much better she would feel if she got back into running, which she had done all through chemo/xrt. She has to wear 2 sports bras right now because of the lyphedema and is just frustrated because she isn't feeling that great right now. The three of us chatted for 5 or 10 minutes and they both said something that really helped me. The both told me that I looked great. I know it's petty to care about appearance, but my self esteem about my appearance has been a little low. I'm not sleeping great and all I can see in the mirror or bags under my eyes. It was a good little boost that I needed. The other nurses commented that it must be reassuring to work with other survivors, "You have no idea" I told them.

On Tuesday, I was invited to be the Nutrition Expert for a breast cancer support group at the hospital. Now, I had never attended a formal support group. It was an interesting experience. I let them know that I too was a breast cancer survivor and their first question was "How old are you?". After introductions were made, people identified where in their treatment or survivorship they were and nearly everyone mentioned what their Onccotype score was. Fascinating. I answered the 12 ladies nutrition questions, had a disagreement with one of them about the safety of dairy (safe!), what the deal with flaxseeds is and debunked many a myth. Including a new one I had not heard. One of the ladies asked me if eggs were safe to eat and if chicken eggs had any hormonal properties. I let her know that they did not and eggs were safe to eat. (Sorry for the error in the previous post) The discussion in the support group trended towards everyone trying to figure out the cause and many identifying that they feel there is some genetic component that hasn't been identified. There was also a new woman who had just been diagnosed and she was grateful to everyone sharing the different surgeries they had and why they chose their surgeries, surgeons and medical course.

What I have learned is that what works for me is the impromptu support groups. The formal group is nice, but 1.5 hours is a bit long for me. But what a lovely two days being surrounded by survivors and fighters. I hope everyone else got the self esteem and life boost that these past two days brought me. I for one feel supported.