Happy Cancer-versary
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Positive
By Sharri Bockheim Steen

How beautiful a day can be
When kindness touches it!
~George Elliston

My “cancer-versary” was two days away. The worst parts of treatment — the surgeries and four rounds of chemotherapy — were long behind me, yet I was miserable. Why? Because the part of breast cancer treatment that was supposed to be easy — just swallow a pill every day for the next five years to lower my risk of recurrence — turned out to be just as bad as the chemotherapy. The drug’s side effects left me incapacitated on the couch.

The anniversary of my diagnosis was supposed to be a day of triumphant celebration and tranquil reflection on how far I had come in the past year. I had expected to spend the day being grateful for my life and health, grateful that I was still alive to parent my young children, grateful that my hair was growing back. I wasn’t feeling grateful. I was feeling disheartened that the side effects were persisting two weeks after my oncologist had taken me off the drug. I had been a healthy, active person before my diagnosis. Was that never to be restored? I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. (Keep reading)