Community Connection: Ovarian Cancer Canada is looking for volunteers! Could you help?
OVdialogue – consider joining our team in the role of Peer Support Volunteer. Over a few hours each week, you would be part of a team that helps connect people, support conversations and are thought leaders for OVdialogue. This is your opportunity to give back to those who have/continue to support you through the tough times, share your unique experiences, and help celebrate successes. For more details of what this entails, please reach out to @Mfallis (mfallis@ovariancanada.org).
OVdialogue – consider joining our team in the role of Peer Support Volunteer. Over a few hours each week, you would be part of a team that helps connect people, support conversations and are thought leaders for OVdialogue. This is your opportunity to give back to those who have/continue to support you through the tough times, share your unique experiences, and help celebrate successes. For more details of what this entails, please reach out to @Mfallis (mfallis@ovariancanada.org).
Quote
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Strongwoman
Moderator
From the book "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" by Dale Carnegie
"......of an inscription on the ruins of a fifteenth-century cathedral in Amsterdam, Holland. This inscription says in Flemish "It is so. It cannot be otherwise."
As you and I march across the decades of time, we are going to meet a lot of unpleasant situations that are so. They cannot be otherwise. We have our choice. We can either accept them as inevitable and adjust ourselves to them, or we can ruin our lives with rebellion and maybe end up with a nervous breakdown."
This quote struck me as it relates to how I felt being diagnosed with cancer. I either had to accept it and move on so to speak (find out more about it, treatments, outcomes, etc) or I could have drowned myself in the "what if's". I chose to move on. Mind you it was an intensely emotional time full of ups and downs. I had to get past the "why me" and the "why now" and change my thinking to "what next" "who will be there to help" and "I will face it one day at a time." Most days I still live by "one day at a time". This disease tests us and definitely pulls us to our limits and sometimes beyond. What it does give back is love of family/friends, community and self. It has been the best self reflecting I have ever done and planning for the future tool. Whatever my future holds, I know I have done what I can, given back where I could and did my best to stay in the moment and enjoy.
"......of an inscription on the ruins of a fifteenth-century cathedral in Amsterdam, Holland. This inscription says in Flemish "It is so. It cannot be otherwise."
As you and I march across the decades of time, we are going to meet a lot of unpleasant situations that are so. They cannot be otherwise. We have our choice. We can either accept them as inevitable and adjust ourselves to them, or we can ruin our lives with rebellion and maybe end up with a nervous breakdown."
This quote struck me as it relates to how I felt being diagnosed with cancer. I either had to accept it and move on so to speak (find out more about it, treatments, outcomes, etc) or I could have drowned myself in the "what if's". I chose to move on. Mind you it was an intensely emotional time full of ups and downs. I had to get past the "why me" and the "why now" and change my thinking to "what next" "who will be there to help" and "I will face it one day at a time." Most days I still live by "one day at a time". This disease tests us and definitely pulls us to our limits and sometimes beyond. What it does give back is love of family/friends, community and self. It has been the best self reflecting I have ever done and planning for the future tool. Whatever my future holds, I know I have done what I can, given back where I could and did my best to stay in the moment and enjoy.
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Indeed, this disease has definitely shaken us to our very core. This quote is quite helpful as I navigate my own journey with this disease. There are gifts along the way, and for me, one of them has been meeting you. You have left a lasting impact.
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Aww thank you so much @HorseGirl I am thankful and truly grateful that you have found some words to help you along your journey that resonate and will stay with you even on the difficult days
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From the book entitled "With the End in Mind" by Kathryn Mannix
"People are not limited so much by their illness as by their attitude to it. The illness may present physical challenges, but the emotional challenge is often far more important. Our human spirit may stumble as the path ahead appears too daunting, yet with support and encouragement, our resilience can be re-enabled and used to find creative solutions. We are all individuals, and one person's plan may not be a good fit for another; who, outwardly at least, appears to be in a similar situation. Enabling people to be the architects of their own solution is key to respecting their dignity. They are only in a new phase of life, they have not abdicated personhood."
How does this resonate with you? Help you in any way? I recall reading the words and thinking 'how profound'. It is true, we are not in the same place at the same time EVEN if we seem so similar in many aspects. We are individuals with our own individual journeys.
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This quote helps me redirect my thinking by reminding me that my attitude is something that I have control over. Emotionally, I have been on a rollercoaster, and it was made even harder as I mourned my previous abilities to do things I enjoyed. But if I am being completely honest with myself, my physical abilities were a figment of my imagination. The last couple of years have been a struggle. I have felt weak and oftentimes could only get things done in the mornings before needing to rest. By listening to my body, I actually became the “architect of my own solution”. The tumour was found because I paid attention to small
warning signs and went to the emergency department. I contacted my GP immediately, and asked for the referral to my current oncologist/gynaecologist after advice from a friend. I managed to coordinate with a local gynaecologist referred from the emergency department so that an MRI, uterine/cervical biopsies, and CA-125 were all done before my first appointment with my surgeon on July 11th. After speaking with you the other day, I called and asked for my recent CA-125 results (12). I made a request through Pocket Health to obtain copies of my CT scan presurgery in July, and my scans from last October. It’s time that I stop crying and mourning, and start getting on with my life. I had my passport photos done yesterday, and am going to do some travelling. I have no control over what my upcoming CT scan will reveal. Whatever happens, I will ask questions and explore solutions.0 -
Your CA 125 results are amazing @HorseGirl Congrats on that! I am thankful that our chat the other day helped and that you have reframed a thought process. So enlightening to hear and that you renewed your passport so that you may begin to make some plans in the near future. You are correct, we have NO control over what is to come only what is today. That is what we have now, today and today only. Tomorrow has not come and the past is what it is called the past to remained unchanged. Whatever the motivation or intent, I am thankful for it and for you. Keep on moving forward a day at a time. You may hit some stumbling blocks, but I am positive you will get past them. Take care and enjoy your day, whatever it may bring. 0
