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I didn't have any wait. I was told there and then, and in fact,
I went on my own, I was feeling so well. For three days I think, I cried.
How do I tell my mom that I've got this?"--my mom.>>yes.
Because somehow it was something we didn't talk about
within the family.
And when I told her, she thinks it's stupid--yes. And I said, "No, it really is true."
One area of difficulty around for everybody I think, how do other people respond?
You've touched on the, who do I tell, and how do I tell them,
but how do people respond too--and the sense you could have of needing
to kind of care-take other people really, and have to manage
other people's responses to you.
I guess one of the thing I would say is, "You're not responsible
for other people's feelings."--you know.
That other people need to manage themselves in some kind of way,
and allow yourselves to choose who you tell too because other people
may have an idea of what you ought to be doing and who you ought to tell,
but I think you have to follow your own path.
Because I remember coming home and thinking, oh my God,
do I have to phone all my friends and family and tell them--
make maybe one or two phone calls, and after that you're just totally exhausted
from telling people and explaining.
And like you said, it's like you go from being completely well
and maybe bump into someone on the street and they say,
"Oh you look really well," and you just think, if only--you know--you knew.
Sometimes it can be helpful to identify a friend or somebody in the family
who can be the main point of contact about their welfare that other people
can refer to, and that saves them always having to be the one to do that.
It may be contacting people through email. It's a useful thing to do.
And also just to let people know, your friends know that you may not
contact them as much as you ordinarily would,
but that's just how it is for the moment, and you can't always come out
and do things in the way that you would either and to be patient with that.
[STREAMING WELL] [Breast Cancer Haven] [Copyright 2012]