It's June 1st, which marks the official 5 year anniversary of the end of my cancer treatment. It’s a span of time that’s often referred to as, um...“the end date of your…” something-or-other...I don’t know! This anniversary was once considered to be a big deal to people who had cancer. But now--not so much.
For those who haven’t had to undergo cancer treatment--it is a very draining experience. I did my last radiation treatment on June 1, 2015. There was six months of chemotherapy and then a month and a half of radiation. By the end of that experience, I was quite ill and quite ready for it to be over.
I distinctly remember how I felt on the one year anniversary. I was still kind of rattled. Year 2--the same. But now, after five years I’m simply filled with the sense that...life goes on. With the passing of time, it's as if it had happened to somebody else--I have to remind myself that it actually happened to me. I just don’t remember the day-to-day details, with one exception. It was something my doctor said. After we finished, he said, “if you had received that treatment back when I started-out--you'd be dead already”.
Thank God for modern medicine.
And, well, congratulations to me, I guess.
No offense if you think it's important, but I'm not the type of person who uses the term "cancer survivor". Personally, I think the use of the phrase is silly. All I did was take the medicine they gave me--and it worked. I didn't do anything else. And I certainly haven’t done anything special over the last 5 years (other than let time pass). Thankfully, it hasn’t come back--a process in which I also had no role, whatsoever.
So to those who say, “you've done it brilliantly,’ I simply respond “thank you”.