Keeping a journal during cancer treatment is great for perspective. While it can give you insights into symptoms as well as a record of treatments and reactions, it can also give you documented proof of how strong you can be, even years later.
PUBLISHED February 06, 2018
Felicia Mitchell is a poet and writer who makes her home in southwestern Virginia, where she teaches at Emory & Henry College. She was diagnosed with Stage 2b HER2-positive breast cancer in 2010. Website: www.feliciamitchell.net
One winter day, the other day, I was sick with fever. Nothing would distract me from self-pity - not the birds I watched outside my window, not the newspapers I subscribe to, not even Netflix. Snow started to fall. "Is this it?" I asked myself. "Have I, a cancer survivor, forgotten how to weather a virus?"
Cancer teaches us a lot of things. Sometimes I have to reflect on its lessons to remember that I am stronger than I think. That is what I finally did, late in the afternoon, after my spell of self-pity. I pulled out some journals from my year of cancer treatment. I wanted a reminder that I could weather even an ordinary malady.
Cancer teaches us a lot of things. Sometimes I have to reflect on its lessons to remember that I am stronger than I think. That is what I finally did, late in the afternoon, after my spell of self-pity. I pulled out some journals from my year of cancer treatment. I wanted a reminder that I could weather even an ordinary malady.
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