CPA, BELIEVE51 and any OTHERS that believe they are "just" caregivers...
Being a caregiver can/is an even harder job than being the patient and you ALL had better take care of yourselves as I FIRMLY believe that being a caregiver "aided" in my "acquiring" breast cancer. My father became terminally ill from a heart condition 7/04 (he lived 100 miles away from me and my mother...they were divorced... and son...I am the single mother of a then 3yo son...live with me AND I was working full time AND I was going to college all while trying to take care of him long distance...my siblings wanted nothing to do with him and it was just me) he kept having strokes, I was having panic attacks and ready to see a therapist when he had the "last stroke" in 10/04 (I was ALSO scheduled for my first...I was 40 yo...mammogram, but had to cancel due to him being hospitalized). 1/05 the doctors forced me to put him in a nursing home and LITERALLY the next day I went for my rescheduled mammo and my journey began...2/1/05. Let me tell you, being a caregiver is TREMENDOUS work and very often overlooked, but not by me...HOORAY FOR CAREGIVERS and BIGGGG HUGGGGS to you all from me
Rhonda
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Rhonda
Dx 2/1/05, Stage 1, 0 nodes, Grade 3, ER/PR-, HER2+ (3.16 Fish)
2/7/05, Partial Mastectomy
5/18/05 Finished 6 rounds of dose dense TEC (Taxotere, Epirubicin and Cytoxan)
8/1/05 Finished 33 rads
8/18/05 Started Herceptin, every 3 weeks for a year (last one 8/10/06)
2/1/13...8 year Cancerversary and I am "perfect" (at least where cancer is concerned;)
" And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."- Abraham Lincoln
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