After treatment for breast cancer, it’s not uncommon to feel like you’re living a different life. Although many aspects of your life may remain the same, the way that you interact with your body and the world has changed. You may have limitations that you didn’t have before, and your needs are different. The good news is that you don’t have to navigate this new world on your own. With these coping strategies, you can find effective ways to rebuild your life as a survivor.
Maintain Physical Well-Being
Maintaining your physical well-being is a great way to minimize long-term effects and help you get back to the routines and activities that you did before. Taking care of your body includes a variety of tasks, such as:
- Eating a healthy diet rich in antioxidants
- Reaching (or regaining) a healthy body weight
- Increasing daily activity through walking, swimming, or other gentle exercise
Be sure to ask your doctor for advice on resuming normal physical activities. You may need to take it slowly and rebuild your strength and stamina, even if you had great overall fitness before your diagnosis.
Seek Social Support
You may have plenty of people who love you and want to help, but they can’t necessarily provide the kind of support you need from someone who understands. Although breast cancer is the most common cancer in the United States for women (of the invasive, reportable cancers), you may have to look to find others going through the same experience. About one in eight women will cope with breast cancer in her lifetime, which means that you’re not alone. Support groups, peer mentoring, and individual therapy can help you identify your feelings and advocate for your needs as you recover.
Take Care of Emotional and Mental Health
While your physical health may have been on the rocks for weeks or months, it can be easy to dismiss the effects on your emotional and mental health. Going through a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment can upend your life, interrupting your work, family obligations, and social outlets. Coping mechanisms you develop during and after treatment can determine how your mental and emotional health rebound. Consider seeking therapy to help you address conflicts and find productive coping strategies that minimize harm to your health and recovery plans.
Address Cognitive Difficulties
Breast cancer treatments can create cognitive deficits that are difficult to shake. The brain fog commonly caused by chemo may make you feel like you’re running through a deep swimming pool while you try to perform work tasks or remember important responsibilities. You can minimize the long-term effects of these cognitive issues by focusing on memory-improving activities and cognitive stimulation. Spend a little time each day working on puzzles or simple games to increase recall and problem-solving capabilities. Working on improving your sleep quality can also decrease insomnia and other issues that contribute to brain fog.
Attend to Long-Term Effects
After your breast cancer treatment is complete, you may have to deal with some long-term physical effects. Breast cancer that affected your lymph nodes may lead to chronic issues with lymphedema. Although this condition isn’t really curable, you can manage the symptoms. Exercises, lymph drainage, and compression garments can help you to reduce the swelling.
Similarly, you may end up with fatigue that is hard to eliminate. Try some tested treatments for fatigue, including improving your sleep habits, minimizing substance use, and managing your stress. You should discuss your concerns with your doctor so that they are aware of any ongoing issues.
Take Time for Self-Reflection
Going through cancer treatment doesn’t always provide you with a lot of time for self-reflection. Getting back to yourself and your old routines might require a lot of talking to others, but you should also make time to talk to yourself. Journaling can be a great addition to self-care. Writing in your journal, even if you only do it a little at a time, gives you an opportunity to focus on how you’re feeling in the moment. It also provides a snapshot in time that helps you spot patterns in your recovery and see progress toward your self-care goals.
Share Your Experiences
Since everyone’s experience with breast cancer is a little different, you may have valuable information to share with the world. Once you start to feel like you’re making great strides toward your life as a survivor, you might want to consider how you can share your experience. Plenty of people will be going through similar struggles, and your advice and support may be just the help they’re looking for. If you have the energy and your doctor thinks you can handle the responsibility, think about becoming a peer mentor or even speaking publicly about your story.
Consider Advocacy
The cancer treatment probably occupied much of your time and energy for the past weeks or months, which may leave you with space that you need to fill. For many people, the shift from patient to survivor involves serious engagement with the disease, especially how it affects you and others. It’s common to want to do what you can to ensure that those like you can have an easier experience, with more effective treatments or better long-term outcomes. Advocating or fundraising for programs like boat donation, cancer research, and early detection outreach can help you make a difference for the future.
The experience of breast cancer treatment impacts your physical, emotional, and mental health. Once you finish a course of treatment, you may struggle to figure out what to do next. By taking steps to improve your health, attend to long-term effects, and give yourself motivation for the future, you can find a path that celebrates your fight.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeremy Silverstein is Vice President of Operations and Vehicle Dispatching at Breast Cancer Car Donations. During the years he’s been with the organization, he has become quite an expert in the industry and has handled tens of thousands of donated vehicles.
SOURCES
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/breast-cancer/about/how-common-is-breast-cancer.html
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15a64J2ZE1ncZvRwUuVDSXP78Kd7jeujl/view
https://www.fredhutch.org/en/diseases/breast-cancer/breast-cancer-survivorship.html
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21032-chemo-brain
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lymphedema/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20374687
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/21206-fatigue
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