I am 52 years old. I am living with stage 4, metastatic breast cancer.
From the time we start learning to speak, we are programmed to be repeaters. Our handlers, including our parents, older siblings and teachers had a mantra that went like this: “Repeat after me.” This early conditioning trained us to repeat what authority figures told us, to suspend all reason and blindly follow the crowd.
I often read about how someone “won the battle against cancer.” The dominant expectation in the cancer community is to be in resistance to the disease. I choose to peacefully coexist with stage 4 breast cancer. There is no cure for metastatic breast cancer. If I go to war with this malady, I will be fighting a losing battle.
When I was first diagnosed with cancer, almost two years ago, my primary care physician said to me, “However this turns out, know that it does not mean you are a failure.” Dr Real, with those words, gave me permission to die without guilt. I exhaled and found the courage to live life in great abundance.