At some point during your cancer journey you’re likely to find this sentence cross your mind. Or, like me, have the words tumble out of your mouth angrily in a fit of despair.
Family life suddenly centres around you and your body and mind are put to the test. Unless someone has had cancer, they can’t know what you’re going through. But here’s the kicker – unless you’ve cared for someone with cancer, you have no idea what your friends and family are going through either.
Although we’re in this together, my girlfriend and I are at times walking two completely separate roads. She isn’t experiencing her body riddled with cancer or facing a massive surgery to eek out a few more years. But I won’t have to walk into an ICU and see her connected to tubes, battered and bruised from a brutal surgery and still have to manage our ‘normal’ family life.
My loved ones aren’t just processing my illness and treatment but contemplating a future without me in it. It’s hard considering others when I’m the one with cancer but I try to balance it out.
The main thing is to tell others you’re struggling.
That way when you go bonkers over something insignificant, they know you’re not losing your mind as well!
Naomi Evans is a Newcastle-based writer and editor.
Follow her story each week at newidea.com.au, and you can check out more at wordsandwhatnots.com.au.
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