When do you say "I HAD cancer"?

melney
melney Member Posts: 9
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
Hi, I'm fairly new to all this. Dx in Mar 07, had right mastectomy, no chemo, no rads. Stage 1. Currently taking tamoxifen and undergoing reconstruction. (More on my web page.) The question is: When do you say that you "had" cancer, as opposed to saying "I have cancer"? I know it may be splitting hairs, but I guess I just want to know what the standard reply is. I often hedge by saying that I was diagnosed with cancer. What do you think?

Comments

  • seof
    seof Member Posts: 819 Member
    #2
    I was diagnosed in May '07 and am still recieving treatments. I think it is a very personal issue and each person must find his or her own response. I think I will say, "had" when the Doctors pronounce me clear, but I will ever after be a cancer survivor, a bit like an alchoholic is always and alchoholic, even if they are sober for many years. In my mind I am a survivor whether I can say "have" or "had". based on my sister's experience, and the many on this website who have shared theirs, I think the survivor mentality remains in either case. We are a strong group! Glad to hear from you.

    seof
  • Susan956
    Susan956 Member Posts: 510
    #3
    I too use the Cancer Survivor Term. But I think if I had chosen to use the I had cancer term I would have used it after I had completed treatment ( Surgery, Chemo & Rad for me). But for you it was just Surgery.

    Take Care... and know that we are all survivors... and cancer we hope will not make it back into our lives in our lifetimes.
  • chenheart
    chenheart Member Posts: 5,159
    #4
    Another one of those personal choices, to be sure! I call myself a Survivor, and said I HAD cancer from the time I was alert enough to speak post surgery! Afterall, the cancerous lump and the affected lymphnodes were REMOVED....

    I did say I was having chemo/rads to destroy any rogue cells which might be lurking in my body. Ditto for the Arimidex; it isn't treating any cancer I have, but a barrier between me and any new cancer which may be wanting to do battle with me!

    It may indeed be semantics, whatever you are comfortable saying is right!
    Fight on!
    Claudia
  • KathiM
    KathiM Member Posts: 8,028 Member
    #5
    chenheart said:

    Another one of those personal choices, to be sure! I call myself a Survivor, and said I HAD cancer from the time I was alert enough to speak post surgery! Afterall, the cancerous lump and the affected lymphnodes were REMOVED....

    I did say I was having chemo/rads to destroy any rogue cells which might be lurking in my body. Ditto for the Arimidex; it isn't treating any cancer I have, but a barrier between me and any new cancer which may be wanting to do battle with me!

    It may indeed be semantics, whatever you are comfortable saying is right!
    Fight on!
    Claudia

    I agree with Claudia....
    Although, my definition is a bit more confusing... over 2.5 years NED on rectal cancer, 1 year on breast cancer...so, hummmm....
    Actually, come to think of it, I say...."I'm a double cancer survivor. Rectal and breast. Cancer free now. I consider that I have hit the lottery twice in the last 3 years!"

    Hugs, Kathi
  • lois03
    lois03 Member Posts: 1
    #6
    I was DX on 3-20-07. Just finished A&C-Taxel& Herceptin &one year of Herceptin. I am now on armidex for 5 years. I do not know the answer either. If you find out, please post it.
  • 24242
    24242 Member Posts: 1,398 Member
    #7
    I am most proud to be able to say that I AM a cancer survivor and now thriving something I thought would never be possible.
    I am was stage 3 with 11 out of 21 positive nodes. I am not on anything after years of pain and meds just to deal with the life I had left. So proud I am and such pride is for those like my cousin who fought the fight and often were never looked upon as survivors at all. She died while I was fighting to live and found that one of the hardest things to deal with. It was hard for people to even consider her a survivor when she was loosing her fight with her own breast cancer reoccurance to bone. I had to point out to them that she survived amazing things and just to get out of bed in the morning was surviving enough for me at times. Yet they all looked at me like this miracle and I saw her as my hero.
    Surviving is something that we do from the moment we are being tested for whatever it is they are looking for. I say you can survive that and you know the feeling of that survival in us all.
    Life is nothing but hard work before and now after cancer and it is truly what we make it. Doctors had little hope of me gaining any resemblance of my old life as athlete and career. I guess just not settling allowed me the ability to be open enough to try anything to help myself. I agree with Oprah when we truly know better we do better. Or at least we should get to know better and do better for myself. I was never number one before and now had to make myself my priority. Sure I have always realized that I was responsible for everything that happened to me and had gotten over myself long ago.
    "She endured and Survived. Marginally perhaps but it is not required of us that we live well." Anne Cameron
    This was in a great book Simple Abundance and have always kept that to the core of my being. It is what it is and we have to know what we have control over and what we do not. "Living is truly being able to live in the good and bad of ourlives." To be this is success.
    Tara

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