Breast cancer was my new beginning
Five years ago, I went for my yearly mammogram as I had been doing for over a decade. As usual, I thought nothing of it until I received a phone call from my doctor advised me that there was "something suspicious" on a x-ray and that I should come immediately to talk about it because I needed to take a closer look close to it. Fear seized me immediately as I began to imagine all the worst situations that could evoke in my mind. I kept hearing his voice over and over again in my saying, "You have breast cancer." However gripped by fear I went to the doctor's office, where he proceeded to explain his suspicions and told me I had to a biopsy. Even in crowds of fear programmed for the procedure performed. His suspicions were confirmed. Had breast cancer. My treatment was a lumpectomy and 8 weeks of radiation therapy. I refused oral chemotherapy, which means I have increased my success rate at 10 percent. When I found my general health and side effects of chemotherapy, she knew she had made the right decision for me at that time. Which brings me to the most important things I learned as a survivor of breast cancer: 1) I had to take responsibility and be involved in my treatment and care, and 2) could not return to life as usual . I had changed. I felt like I had faced the enemy called death and lived to tell. This may sound melodramatic and / or delusional, but has given me a different perspective on my life and what really matters. It was impossible for me to continue with life as usual after facing and surviving the "Big C." Although I felt vulnerable, sometimes I was also encouraged to take another giant who had been around for over 30 years : I was a high school dropout. I decided to return to school, first for my GED and then for my associate degree. Immediately enrolled in school that would take me to a degree GED in one fell swoop. I dived into the school as full-day students, while receiving radiotherapy. My counselor was the only person who committed at school. I knew I was in school all day and rushed to the hospital for radiation. For everyone else it was just another student trying to pass. I managed to get through my first semester in honor to the list of the President. Within a year he had completed the study needed to get my GED and two years who had earned my associate degree. Those two years were the first five years of pain during which I faced my greatest fears and giants. My health was in decline. It seemed like every time I went to the doctor that there was something wrong. All you need to be low was high and what should be high was low. I felt miserable. I had no income, no money and then my mother died, I totally devastated. There I was, a breast cancer survivor and feeling deprived of love and life. I was diagnosed and treated for depression. The cancer had gone away from my body, but the fact that I was a cancer survivor was a constant source of encouragement and empowerment subconscious that kept me even when he succumbed to depression as a means of temporary escape after an old injury fired and unable to me a while. I switched to a school that offers an independent study program that allowed me to study at my own pace at home. I've done my four years of college and got my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. Meanwhile, writing school papers had awakened the writer in me and I wrote a manuscript, which is then submitted to a publisher. It was accepted and published this year under the title "State dropped -.. It is not a character flaw last but certainly not lease, which just celebrated five years as a breast cancer survivor My life has taken a new direction. I feel like I have given a new lease on life. I am a college graduate, a breast cancer survivor and author on the path to a new life and new beginnings.
http://pchlotto.com
