Cancer doesn’t have an end date, but not much else does either. And I’m grateful for that❤️
Today I sat by a lady in the chemo unit who will come in for “maintenance” every 3 weeks for the rest of her life. It’s part of her immunotherapy treatment after breast cancer.
She was first diagnosed with early stage breast cancer a couple years back. When they checked her lymph nodes, they were clear. For comparison, I had 14 out of 21 lymph nodes come back cancerous. So my cancer had spread further than hers by a decent amount. She went through chemo and had a double mastectomy and thought cancer was in her past at that point. Two years later though, she had pain in her leg; the cancer had come back and spread to her femur. What was once had been early stage breast cancer was now Stage 4.
Hearing her story, I guess it made me step back a bit. She’s doing okay now, but it still made me think about my own journey.
It’s so important to celebrate big milestones. Those times when we have reached a meaningful goal or made it through something big in our lives. But sometimes we forget that so many things don’t actually have solidified end dates.
Cancer can come back. It’s true. My mom had cancer twice as well. This is something I am processing and will face for the rest of my life.
But just like cancer doesn’t necessarily have an end date, other things don’t necessarily have end dates either, and I think that’s pretty cool.
Like friendships. Even if you move locations or people get married or have babies, friendships don’t just end. Instead, we get to celebrate those big milestones together and then evolve that friendship into something new and unique. Friendships don’t have to have end dates. Neither do meeting career goals, health goals, personal growth goals, etc. When we have reached those big moments in our lives, we should celebrate! And then the next day we get the opportunity to continue to evolve and learn and grow. The journey doesn’t end, it just changes.
Celebrating a milestone doesn’t necessarily mean that the journey is over. While I wish cancer could have a definite end date, I’m thankful that so much of life doesn’t work that way❤️
