If you have been diagnosed with cancer as I was in March, you may face the prospect of saying yes to chemotherapy — and going from whatever aches and pains you’re currently dealing with to several months of misery in the hope of killing cancer before it kills you. Here are some things you can do to prepare so this awful time can be weathered as well as possible.
Get help
You will need help, and for many of us, it’s very hard to ask for help. So think back on the times friends or family needed help, and how you wanted to be able to do something, anything. Tell the people around you what you need. Some will be able to give one small boost, and it may be just what you needed at the right time. Others will be incredibly generous, and you will feel awkward about it. That’s okay.
And yes, a few may be clumsy, overly directive, or factually wrong about the way they try to help you. Don’t take a friend’s miracle cure over your oncologist’s directions, and don’t let a well-meaning relative kindly bully you into anything. But accept the love that inspires this wrong kind of help.
Things you can get help with: Continue reading “Preparing for chemotherapy”
The Reef 