Breast Cancer and Day to Day Self Management

After a diagnosis, many are confused or depressed about how to live their every day life. However, if detected early, breast cancer has a 98% survival rate.  Depending on severity, your life will incorporate breast cancer and your daily habits will indeed change.  However, there will always be time for you and to do things that make you feel cancer free.

Lifestyle Changes:

There is no single right way to heal, to feel better, to cope or to change one's life. What seems to be important is to spend some time learning about which ways of healing are good for each individual.  Here are some self-care questions you can ask your self in order to manage your own wellness better:

• What are my self-care skills? Do I take care of myself last? What advice would I give myself if I were my best friend, sibling or child?
• How is my diet? And am I drinking enough water?
• Am I getting enough quality sleep?
• What are my life stressors that I can help reduce?
• Can I find a pass time where I enjoy exercising?
• What do I love?  What gives my life meaning? How can I make more time for these things in my life  (Breast Cancer, 2016) ?

A lifestyle change is a dynamic process and it can be every changing.  The most important thing is to care about yourself and care and wellness you give to yourself.

Below is a video excerpt of a breast cancer diary of woman named Victoria Derbyshire. She records her every day life while coping with breast cancer.  This is her first chemotherapy session using a cold cap and how she feels days after.  A cold cap helps reduce blood flow to the head which reduces the chemotherapy in the region, and therefore conserving hair in a process in which you usually lose hair.

(BBC, 2015)

Links:

Living with Breast Cancer

Living with breast cancer offers support, blogs, events, and helplines for people who are going though all of the stages of breast cancer.

References:

Breast Cancer Self-Care and Recovery: Nutrition. (2016). Retrieved November 23, 2016, from https://www.ucsfhealth.org/education/breast_cancer_self-care_and_recovery/nutrition/ 

Victoria Derbyshire's breast cancer video diary: Chemotherapy - BBC News. (2015). Retrieved November 23, 2016, from https://youtu.be/qSHStzxEa_4