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Living With You, Breast Cancer

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My mother was a 50-year breast cancer survivor, but the second bout was relentless.

Image of breast cancer cells.

Living With You

When cancer came and sat with me

I woke up to a new view of the world

We lived together a little while seemingly

uninvolved each of us on our own path

The diagnosis was a proclamation of presence

but only that, like a sign posted on a pole I saw each day

Others saw the poster and shared stories of their lives

how a friend or relative survived or died in time

Listening to others, clarity approached that everyone

dies. Only the date and time is mostly not of our choosing

Many suggested a war time mentality to fight

but no one has any natural armor or weapons

Fighting became attending to the demands of others

coupled with prayer by myself and on my behalf

Since the watched clock never ceases, so it was with me

no time nor date of predicted ending ever came

After a long time we came to live together fighting, then

giving in to each other, sometimes a win sometimes a loss

My bucket list is finished and so I add items but mostly

I enjoy each day I have and suggest you do as well.

My mother was a 50-year breast cancer survivor.This poem is written from her point of view. She lived with the knowledge the cancer could return and it did after 50 years. She died after the second bout with breast cancer.

This post was written and submitted by Michael Owens. The article reflects the views of Owens and not of CURE®. This is also not supposed to be intended as medical advice.

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Dr. Debu Tripathy is a professor and chairman of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, and the editor-in-chief of CURE®.
Dr. Azka Ali is a medical oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, in Ohio.
Dr. Maxwell Lloyd, a Clinical Fellow in Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Dr. Maxwell Lloyd, a Clinical Fellow in Medicine, in the Department of Medicine, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Dr. Aditya Bardia is a professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, director of Translational Research Integration, and a member Signal Transduction and Therapeutics, at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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