Breast Cancer Awareness month - Day 21
Day 21. People often ask 'Why do you look so good, if you have an incurable cancer?'
Metastatic breast cancer has its ups and downs. Sometimes, we may be feeling relatively good and are living with stable disease. Other times we may be experiencing a lot of side effects, but if hair loss isn't one of them, people may not notice. Even when the disease is progressing, we may still look ok, up to a certain point.
I like to think I am just so fabulous that of course I look good!
All kidding aside, the quality of life (QOL) factor comes into play here. Sure, we could have really blasted my cancer with high doses of the chemo. I would have really felt the side effects then. Hair loss, fatigue, nausea.
I would have looked "sick". Instead, the doctor chose to do the slow and steady route so that if I did have side effects, they were minimal. Thus, I looked "normal".
I understand that when people tell me I look great, it's coming from a good place and it's genuine. I will admit, though, that sometimes it irks me a little, in a perverse way. Like they are diminishing my condition...that I can't be that bad because I look ok.
I also know that that is my problem and not the people telling me I look great. It's very weird because I don't go around telling people I have cancer because I'm trying to ignore it (haha), but on the other hand, I don't want people that know I have it, to think I have no issues stemming from the cancer because I look ok.
Metastatic breast cancer has its ups and downs. Sometimes, we may be feeling relatively good and are living with stable disease. Other times we may be experiencing a lot of side effects, but if hair loss isn't one of them, people may not notice. Even when the disease is progressing, we may still look ok, up to a certain point.
I like to think I am just so fabulous that of course I look good!
All kidding aside, the quality of life (QOL) factor comes into play here. Sure, we could have really blasted my cancer with high doses of the chemo. I would have really felt the side effects then. Hair loss, fatigue, nausea.
I would have looked "sick". Instead, the doctor chose to do the slow and steady route so that if I did have side effects, they were minimal. Thus, I looked "normal".
I understand that when people tell me I look great, it's coming from a good place and it's genuine. I will admit, though, that sometimes it irks me a little, in a perverse way. Like they are diminishing my condition...that I can't be that bad because I look ok.
I also know that that is my problem and not the people telling me I look great. It's very weird because I don't go around telling people I have cancer because I'm trying to ignore it (haha), but on the other hand, I don't want people that know I have it, to think I have no issues stemming from the cancer because I look ok.
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