Women under 40

[Survivor2be]

I have been fighting BC for a year now and am stage IV with brain mets. I am 34 and my children are 10, 6, 4. I did chemo, then surgery, then rads before it went to the brain. Up to that point, I think my age helped keep life "normal" for everyone. I worked, took care of the kids, house, husband. Now, I had TONS of support! I live with my mother-in-law, and brother/sister live like next door. They all helped tremendously keeping my girls lives unchanged. But I think being young and focused on our families is both good and bad.
Good: keeps you focused on recovery and moving forward becmause you do things fur them. Helped me stay positive to be a good example.
Bad: I didn't have tone to focus on me. Like eat right, rest, exercise, destress. I just keep going and working and refusing to slow down.

Now that I'm facing an "uncurable but treatable" disease, things have changed. I have more surgery and chemo to face. I'm tired and I can't do the things I did just last year. But we will have a new normal. A mom with less distractions. I may not get all their things packed and ready for school, but I will present for them. That's the main lesson im learning right nuw: stop multi-tasking and focus!!! Was always hard!!

The other issue for us spring chickens is survivorship. I'm not talking 5-10 years like all cancer studies talk about, we are looking at 30+!!! Right!!! I wanna see info about that, and what makes us special!!

Good luck Kristin with your treatments and decisions about kids. I struggle with the guilt of putting my 3 girls through the future stress of BC. I mean, if I had it at 33, do they need to be worried at 23???? But they have kept me strong!!