Writing “A Breast Cancer Journey” – A Post on Women Writers

In the quiet of the early morning, I opened my laptop to the document no one knew about. I began writing, words flowing out of my soul, fast and unfiltered. Once they left my fingers, I dared not read them, fearing I might stop. In those moments, I was caught between the healing I longed for and the pain of the treatments that had just finished. The page captured my unspoken fears, my repressed anger, and the uncertainty that lay before me.

It was January 2020, well before the world had shut down for the pandemic, and I was only a few weeks out of breast cancer treatment. Outwardly, I looked the same as I’d always had, but that was only because my sunburned and scarred breasts were covered up. A smile masked my internal anxieties, and my energy, depleted by the radiation, was nowhere to be found.

I needed a place to tell all of what I’d been through, not just the “short version.” Throughout my breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, I realized that a stage zero breast cancer diagnosis doesn’t mean zero challenges. On the eve of my 42nd birthday, I became a cancer patient.

What followed were months of imaging, biopsies, decision-making, surgery, and four weeks of radiation. My medical team was positive and encouraging, and my family and friends were supportive. But I was a mess. My mind was filled with anxious thoughts. I was expending all my energy on making vital treatment decisions and recovering from them. I had to let go of my homemaking and virtual schooling roles and allow others to help me. My high school-aged sons struggled with my mortality and their academics. My husband wondered if he would have to raise them alone.

These struggles happened behind closed doors. The emotional turmoil, mental anxieties, and exhaustion weren’t visible. And yet, I knew my journey wasn’t unique. I was diagnosed after my second annual mammogram— the first of my friends to go through breast cancer. I knew I wasn’t going to be the last.

To read more, please head over to my post on Women Writers, Women’s Books.