In the cancer community we seem to all have our own personal internal (or external) reaction to the words ‘survivor’ and ‘survivorship.’ This month we have been focusing on this word and its meaning to us, the MBC patient. One of our readers recently commented on a previous blog post and said;
'Survivorship to me happens every day I wake. When I can get up and do things and when I can only offer snuggles to my kids. Each day I am surviving and it's beautiful.’
This simple quote left me thinking of all the positive ways we can look at this. We are surviving everyday; with simple hugs and cuddles or when we’re busting our butts to get things done. We often refer to more productive days as ‘better’ days. But I think we can all agree that if we are snuggling with loved ones; kids, spouses, family or friends; that's a damn good day. I think we also have to take a look at perspective. It often seems easier or more natural to see the negatives in things. How beautiful it would be if we shifted our perspectives and always see the positives first. This may be why ‘survivorship’ is often seen as a ‘friend’ and other times as ‘foe’.
In the MBC community we often feel excluded in the word survivor. Early in our diagnosis we see ‘the light at the end of the tunnel,' we join cancer groups, and make cancer friends that we continuously share our story with. With MBC there is no end to our tunnel. We continue treatment until it doesn't work, we live our lives planning around scans. Statically the median survival rate for MBC is 3 years. But as we know many of us have crushed that number! And that makes us want and need more.
We need more attention,
we need more treatment and
we need more loud MBC advocate voices.
MBC men and women are surviving longer; statistics need to be updated, research needs to continue and we need each other.
Jackie Seiner
3 year MBC survivor
Project Life Administrator
Join us at ProjectLifeMBC.com to continue making the changes we so desperately need and deserve!
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***Photo used with permission from our very own MBC momma Danielle Thurston.