Tomorrow marks my 4 year anniversary in remission! October 17th – another date that is so special to me. Right now I am starting the 2nd year of my Counselling and Psychotherapy degree, something I had been putting on the back burner and afraid to take the plunge into for many years! Could not be more delighted to have started it! Feeling in a really good place in so many areas of my life and that feeling of balance I have been searching for for so long is getting closer and closer to me! The chronic fatigue is the lingering side-effect that still has an impact on me mentally and physically but I have spent the last 4 years learning how to manage it better and what I need to do for myself to not let it affect me too much….some days I nail it, others I fail miserably…but that’s human nature!
I’ve been writing this blog for nearly 3 years now, to use it as my own little personal recovery journal and it’s been so cathartic for me in so many ways. I’ve been able to write down and work through some of the toughest times in my life and hopefully helped a couple of people along the way. I wanted a place where I could come and talk about how I was feeling through the aftermath of treatment. How it has affected me in so many different areas of my life, some expected, some not so much. But I also wanted a place where other people could come and see that they are not alone, be it survivors or family members of people having gone through treatment, to show that all those feelings and emotions are real and valid and not to be afraid of them. I know I was! I was terrified of them! That fear that what you are feeling is not normal. But that’s not the case at all. Everyone’s recovery is so different but from speaking to people through Greystones Cancer Support and the Irish Cancer Society, I was able to see that I wasn’t alone in these feelings like I had initially thought and that itself made them so much easier to deal with and to help me get to where I am today. I am delighted to have had opportunities to get involved with my local Cancer Support Centre in Greystones and also with Irish Cancer Society in their Research funding and Advocacy programme – helping to give a voice to the patient side of the disease.
I feel this is the right time to bookend this little blog that I began, but I am so happy that I did document my journey for myself and for others to refer back to, and to also to remind myself of what I am capable of. Knowing the Me I have become after C, it may have taken a while to understand and appreciate all the changes that have happened, but I’m not afraid to say, it is someone I am very proud to have become. Right, now pass me the bubbles! 