It Is OK to Be Afraid When Your Life Is at Stake

Breast cancer survivor says let's call a spade a spade: We are afraid our disease will kill us. But, there is help to manage that fear

BY Barbara Tako

PUBLISHED March 18, 2018

Barbara Tako is a breast cancer survivor (2010), melanoma survivor (2014) and author of Cancer Survivorship Coping Tools–We'll Get You Through This. She is a cancer coping advocate, speaker and published writer for television, radio and other venues across the country. She lives, survives, and thrives in Minnesota with her husband, children and dog. See more at www.cancersurvivorshipcopingtools.com or www.clutterclearingchoices.com.

It is always normal to care when something goes wrong with your body. When I broke two bones in my foot last summer, it hurt, and I knew I would need surgery. I worried when or whether I would walk normally again. I was concerned, but I wasn't really afraid. My broken foot was not going to kill me.

Cancer is a different animal. Will the doctors be able to remove it, stop it from growing or keep it from spreading? What about the potential for harsh side effects and new cancers down the road caused by the chemotherapy and radiation treatments? What about cancer that can hide in the body for months, or years, only to come back again? Will I live? How long will I live? Will life ever feel normal again?

Cancer generates a lifetime of fear and worry for many cancer survivors, and those feelings become the new normal. I dislike that term "new normal." Most cancer survivors would give anything for even five minutes of "old normal." Please let me put my head back in the sand. Please?

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