Felicia Mitchell, retired from college teaching, is a poet and writer who makes her home in southwestern Virginia. She is a survivor of stage 2b HER2-positive breast cancer diagnosed in 2010. Website: www.feliciamitchell.net
I recommend that anybody treated for breast cancer learn about lymphedema before it ever becomes an issue. Information can help with preventative or palliative care. I also hope that distress lymphedema causes, if it develops, is something you can talk to doctors, friends, and survivors about.
Sometimes a scarf will turn a cancer patient into a kindness magnet. Wearing this symbolic covering taught me that even strangers want to help us through the day in our cancer journeys. I learned to let them.
The cancer experience is different for all of us that is sometimes easy to navigate and sometimes not at all. Yet we all join the same team once we hear the words “you have cancer.” We can help each other to cope.
If you have a family member who is sick or terminally ill, my advice to approach a holiday is to remain festive, even if the person you want to celebrate does not appear inclined to join in too many festivities. The holiday may become one you will never forget.