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AFTER CANCER: WHAT IF I FEEL LESS FAMILIAR WITH OR LESS SURE ABOUT НУ BODY?

Posted under Cancer by admin

As you grow up, you learn the strengths and weaknesses of your body. By the time you are an adult, you know whether you are double-jointed or inflexible, a sprinter or a long-distance runner, resistant or susceptible to infections, mellow or hyper-excitable, a heavy or a light sleeper, a pessimist or an optimist “by nature,” sensitive to foods or able to eat anything that doesn’t walk, and so on.

Cancer and cancer therapy can upset patterns that have been set for a long time and have come to feel comfortable in identifying “you.” Being different in a few or many ways is unsettling, especially if unexpected and undesired. You do not know what to expect of your body or emotions, so you do not know what the rules are any more. You have become unfamiliar with the body and emotions you always knew best—your own.

If before your episode with cancer all sore throats, coughs, headaches, stomachaches, or backaches cleared up by themselves if left alone, you learned that these things did not need medical attention or intervention. Now that you have had cancer and cancer therapy, some of these symptoms may signal a problem for you that need early intervention to prevent a more serious illness. The same symptoms that you had before your cancer now have different implications. Depending on your type of cancer, your type of treatment, your medical condition before cancer, and your style of dealing with symptoms, you may need to become reacquainted with your body and learn a new style for dealing with its signals.

Bodily changes happen to all people as they get older, but they happen over decades. Gradual changes allow gradual acceptance and adaptation. Cancer and its treatment cause enormous changes practically overnight. Unfortunately, the acceptance and adaptation still take a long time. There is a disparity between how quickly the changes occurred and affected your life and how quickly you can absorb the changes and adjust. This disparity causes a sense of unfamiliarity and stress.