Think Pinker

A wise lady by the name of Kathy Ellen once said that anticipating breast cancer treatment is a bit like anticipating a snowstorm. She was right. That’s because there is no one treatment fits all. Just as a snowstorm that’s supposed to hit one area completely misses and arrives where it was never suppose to be. Breast cancer treatments are very much like this.

Besides the fact that there is no one standard treatment, there is also the fact that the treatment does not always produce the expected results and that can result in a need to alter or completely change a woman’s breast cancer treatment.

The worst part about a storm is the anticipation. The waiting to see where it comes in, how long it lasts, and what damage is does along the way. Will you be without power? Will you be trapped by snow? One can never know in advance just what the outcome of that storm will be, and it is just like this with cancer treatments. One never knows how the body will react and what the outcome will be. Your oncologist will decide on a treatment and then you will be left in anticipation of whether it kills the tumour.

It’s common to fear the unknown and it’s also common to fear the side effects of treatments like chemotherapy which can make you very ill but it pays not to expect the worst case scenario and instead to stay focused on the best case scenario since you never know how your body will hand your treatment.

So just as you cannot anticipate how that cold winter storm will affect you, you cannot anticipate how your breast cancer treatments will affect you either. So instead of worrying, wondering, and waiting, why not put your head up, plow straight ahead and deal with the outcome day by day.