Living Beyond The Statistics
Being diagnosed with breast cancer was really hard to deal with. Being diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer was even harder to deal with because now instead of being a survivor, my focus is thriving and living beyond what is expected.
Statistics show that the average life expectancy after being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer is 3-5 years. This month marks the 3rd year that I've been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. In 2017, my oncologist told me that the main thing they were going to try to do was prolong my life so that I could be around for my daughter. That message hit me different and my life changed drastically after that day. Filled with fear, I decided that I had to handle having breast cancer differently. I was determined to just live my life with no regrets and to live it peacefully. While there are statistics that give me a life expectancy of 3-5 years, I believe God for different.
After being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2017, I stopped celebrating what I had called my "cancerversary" and I stopped calling myself a survivor. Why? Because for me my "cancerversary" was the day that I finished chemotherapy after my first diagnosis. It was a day that symbolized that I was free from having to worry about having cancer. Similar to that, I no longer considered myself a survivor. For me a survivor is someone who had finished their fight with cancer. While I am surviving, I don't call myself a survivor. I believe that I'm more than that. I'm a thriver. I'm growing, developing and evolving through this diagnosis. Please don't think that this places me in a different category than anyone else fighting, these are just my personal feelings and views. I've been through this several times but it really has been only through this diagnosis that I have seen myself mature and grow in a way that I have never seen before.
God is restructuring me. I know that through this process of my life God is doing something different. This diagnosis has helped me to become more aware of myself and who I am becoming. Yes, this process is difficult but I'm grateful for it. God is calling me to do life differently. Sometimes it takes drastic things to get us to the place where God needs for us to be. I had to experience this so that I could be on this path to destiny. Yes, I have made it to my 3rd year and I'm so grateful. However, I see myself living beyond what the statistics say because I trust where God has me and what God is doing. I will walk this path to destiny as if my life will be extended another 50 years because God is not finished with me yet and there is so much more for me to do on this earth.
Whatever you are going through, don't see it as a loss. Don't die or give up in the process...Change your mind about your situation and walk as if you know that your circumstances will change.
Evolve with me!
-T
