Thanks to my cancer being caught very early
It has been 11 days since I received the phone call from my surgeon to let me know I am now cancer-free. My fears about my future were lifted there and then. I am able to go back to work and I am able to continue with my future plans. I sighed with relief for about three days straight with all the pent-up frustration surrounding covid-19 and my future.
This year has been a strange one from being told I had cancer in June to be cancer-free at the end of August. I am so grateful that during this pandemic I was treated as soon as possible and I did not have to wait long at all. I am very grateful that my keyhole surgery went so smoothly that I had no pain at all after surgery. I consider myself very very lucky.
My womb (endometrial) cancer was found at the very earliest stage possible at grade 1A and I am thankful for that. I listened to my body and I knew there was something wrong as I did not have the usual symptoms of endometrial cancer which is usually spotting between periods or heavy bleeding in fact it was the opposite! It was the pain and in particular the lumps or tissue that was falling out with my menstrual cycle.
It feels like one of those times where life throws you a curveball to see if you are still awake! It almost feels like a bad dream, one minute I had it the next I don’t. Any cancer diagnosis gives you a sharp kick up the backside and it’s not a nice one.
Time has gone slowly in these past months that I am in a hurry to get back to myself. I enjoy my leisure time but there is nothing like someone telling you to take it easy for six weeks after major surgery that you realize that you just want to get moving get outside and live your life. I am by no means a patient person and if anything it is telling me to be more patient with myself and to be kind to myself. I can be such a perfectionist and I am so hard on myself that a diagnosis like this really turns things on their head.
The best thing to come out of this is that I don’t care so much like I used to. I used to care so much what others thought of me and how I lived my life and even though I am 41 have a tendency to compare my life with almost everyone I come across. It’s a bad habit that never really died.
I know now that no one has walked my path and I cannot walk the same path as you reading this. I have a feeling that I haven’t even found out everything I’ve learned about myself from this experience and somewhere in the future I will look back at 2021 and realize how I was changed by all of this. Clarity is a word that springs to mind and I will put 2021 as the year I gained a whole lot of clarity about myself, my life, and what really matters at the end of the day. I am alive and I get to be thankful for that for the rest of my life.
