I have not always been good at respecting others differences. Receiving a cancer diagnosis is one of those times we may all handle life in a different way. My experience taught me a deeper respect for how we process challenges.
PUBLISHED April 26, 2018
Doris Cardwell received a life-changing diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer in 2007. While undergoing treatment, she co-founded a mentor program for the cancer center treating her. She also created community events to educate, encourage and empower people regarding cancer. Doris was the first Survivorship Community Outreach Liaison for her local cancer center. She is an advocate, educator and encourager on issues facing cancer survivors. Doris is a wife, mother, empty nester, survivor of life and lover of all things coffee. An avid speaker and blogger, she is available at www.justdoris.com.
Sitting on my porch watching hummingbirds is interesting to me. They are tiny, and they have fast wings. When they are feeding, and another bird tries to come into the feeder, the challenge begins. The bird having its meal will fiercely defend its time and space drinking the sweet nectar. I have seen other hummingbirds come in and dive bomb the approaching bird to protect the one feeding.
When I was first diagnosed with cancer, there was so much to take in. I was on information and challenge overload. Our lives changed drastically, overnight. Not only were we facing a very aggressive and often deadly cancer, we lived in a rural area. We did not have a local cancer center, nor did we have the funds for constant travel three and a half hours to get to one. We quickly decided that we needed to return to our hometown 1,700 miles away. There we would have access to not one, but many cancer centers within a 30- to 45-minute drive. We literally left the day we got the official inflammatory breast cancer diagnosis to meet an appointment back home. When we left, we did not realize we would never return to live in the same house again. Months later, our friends had packed up our things. Other friends drove from the many miles with my husband to move our things back. This was not part of our life plan.
When I was first diagnosed with cancer, there was so much to take in. I was on information and challenge overload. Our lives changed drastically, overnight. Not only were we facing a very aggressive and often deadly cancer, we lived in a rural area. We did not have a local cancer center, nor did we have the funds for constant travel three and a half hours to get to one. We quickly decided that we needed to return to our hometown 1,700 miles away. There we would have access to not one, but many cancer centers within a 30- to 45-minute drive. We literally left the day we got the official inflammatory breast cancer diagnosis to meet an appointment back home. When we left, we did not realize we would never return to live in the same house again. Months later, our friends had packed up our things. Other friends drove from the many miles with my husband to move our things back. This was not part of our life plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment