Metastatic breast cancer - I was stage 4 and terminal during the relapse. Multiple liver metastases, multiple bony metastases to thoracic spine, lumbar spine and ribs, metastasis in upper lobe of left lung, fluid in heart lining, fluid in lining of both lungs that tested positive for cancer cells, grade 3 cancer cells and CerbB2 (HER2) positive - I had them all.
Gosh! Come to think of it, my ctscan at that time must have looked like some polka-dotted artwork.
If facts and past figures are any indication, I should have become part of the statistics. However, my being alive is helping to keep the figures down.
Before I knew about the facts and figures, I would have just been doing my best to stay alive. Now, that I know about them, staying alive becomes a little more challenging, that is, it helps to swing the odds in favour of survivors.
Of course the fight is not mine alone. The oncologists with their conventional therapies, and those around me with their support, advices, recommendations - the approach may be different, but we are all fighting one common enemy - the cancer. However, I probably have an edge because the body is mine and I get to choose and decide.
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