My name is Phyllis and I am a friend of David and Barb in Morehead. Barb indicated that you had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. I wanted to give you a little history about myself.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer 4 years ago, had a masectomy in December, 2002 and started chemotherapy in January, 2003. After my chemotheraphy was over, I had to have 35 radiation treatments. I am saying all this to let you know that when you start this process, everything seems so bleak. The LORD has truly blessed me during this entire process. I say this because it is a process that I believe will be a part of my entire life.
When I first heard those words and was officially diagnosed with cancer, I was devastated. I felt that my life was over. So many of my friends and family had passed away with cancer and I guess I thought, well I won’t live with this dreaded disease. I felt sorry for myself for a couple of weeks and kept thinking “why me?” and then my next thought was “why not me?” I finally decided that I could continue to feel sorry for myself, believe that I couldn’t survive this disease or I could start the battle and beat this disease. My diagnosis became a wake up call. It made me realize that I wanted to experience life fully, not lose it. I could whine about my health and losing my hair, or I could continue living my life to the best of my ability and truly believed that cancer was not going to defeat me. Having cancer has taught me that you don't have time to waste, make every day count. My doctor told me that my positive attitude made me a better patient. I would try to go into my treatments with a positive attitude and try to help lift up the spirits of those folks who were receiving treatments the same days I was.
I know it is hard for you to think about right now, but so many good things came out of my experience. I can now empathize with those people who are going through the same things that I had to get through. I have become more aware of helping others to get through problems, health or otherwise.
Going through an illness like cancer, makes you more aware of all the things that are important and one of those is the love, support and prayers that you are given by your family, friends, co-workers and church family. I kept a typed note on my computer at work that said, "If God brings you to it, he will see you through it." I know that to be true.
I will keep you in my prayers. Phyllis