Milestones and cancer go together like cookies and milk. They show just how far you’ve come from your cancer diagnosis, wether that’s that date of when you were diagnosed, your last chemotherapy date or when your hair began to grow back.
They bring up a lot of emotions, some more happy than others.
I recently hit my 8th re birthday, something which seemed like a dream when I was going through my relapse. It’s a major date along with the rest of the dates I have written down on my calendar every year. Every year I’m grateful to be able to look back and see that I’m in the phase of that happened rather than this is happening. When my re birthday does come around each year, I celebrate it like a second birthday which to me it is, I was given a second chance. I always take some quiet time out on the day to recognise just how far I’ve come and where I am now, it helps with the emotions.
Milestones may be small or huge but it’s up to you to determine. You have or are going to meet people in the cancer circle who celebrate every single step of their treatment but for others they may want to forget, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Cancer really does take everything you have and there’s no right or wrong way to go through treatment and the milestones.
In years past i’ve made a whole day celebration out of my re birthday but others have been very chilled like my last one where I woke up and my mom sang happy birthday to me, something tiny to some but in that moment meant absolutely everything to me. It’s the acknowledgment more than anything, that day changed my life so why shouldn’t it be celebrated?
Other days, for example my diagnosis day, the 9th January will always be etched in my mind. This day I don’t celebrate as such but I do acknowledge as it changed my world as i’d known it forever, it’s the one day where I saw my mom cry and hold me in her arms not knowing what I would go through in the coming months.
So whether it’s the day you lost your hair, the day of your last treatment or the day you were finally told you were cancer free, these days are all moments that will never be forgotten and show just how far you’ve come and all the little wins in life – no matter how small they may seem are all worth celebrating.
The most important thing to remember is to celebrate your way. Remember that everyone experiences cancer and the milestones differently. Some people may not want to acknowledge the days and that’s okay but others may want to celebrate that’s okay too. How you choose to own your milestones is completely up to you.
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Amazing post, Samantha and love that you mark these dates and celebrate them accordingly. You absolutely should, they are milestones and it’s so important to notice how far you’ve come. Obviously I don’t have any experience of how you feel in regards to cancer milestones but I think this is a good reminder that we should all celebrate the smaller and less obvious milestones in our lives as well!
Thank you so much, Jenny! I completely agree, every milestone wether small or big should be celebrated! x
First, congratulations on your 8th re-birthday.
As a fellow cancer warrior, I can relate to this post. I’ll be coming up on 12 years on June 28. Cancer is a strange beast. For me, it was an opportunity to rethink my priorities and be more intentional about how I wanted to live the rest of my life. When I look back, I see it as a positive, but I realize not everyone feels that way.
For the most part, I don’t dwell on my experience but a suspicious mammogram last fall brought it all flooding back. Thankfully, the biopsy was negative but the experience made me realize it’s never really “all behind us” as so many people like to say.
Thank you so much, Michelle. 12 years is an amazing milestone, congratulations. I also saw cancer as a positive, it opened my eyes in so much ways. I’m so glad your biopsy was negative, it’s always a worrying time. I completely agree, there’s so much more to cancer after treatment that people don’t realise.