This week, I decided to team up with my friend Megan, who is also undergoing chemotherapy, but has Leukemia as opposed to Lymphoma. She just went into complete remission by the way, wooo!! We thought it would be a cool idea to compile a list of things that people with cancer want you to know. Here it goes!
- If it can happen to us, it can happen to you. I’m 29 and Megan is 23. We never thought that we would get Leukemia or Lymphoma. We both thought that we were healthy and were told that we were “healthy”, and still went misdiagnosed. If you feel like something is wrong with your health, something probably is. Be your own advocate. Don’t accept misdiagnoses. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Trust your body, it will always tell you when something is wrong.
- Live your life! Do what you want, when you want. Don’t wait until your days revolve around being stuck to a machine that’s administering chemotherapy to actually live. Go on that trip, buy the pair of shoes, stay out too late, you can’t live forever. None of us can. Live while you’re healthy and able to, and don’t take your health or life for granted.
- God will never give you more than you can handle. There is a reason for every situation that you encounter in life. If you can’t understand why something is happening to you, dig deep and you will eventually be able to find the answers. God will always carry you through. The hardest battles are given to the strongest soldiers.
- The things that you’re worried about now, eventually won’t matter. They really won’t. It can always be so much worse. Trust us! Always.
- Drop all of the trivial crap and people that are toxic in your life. At the end of the day, life is short, way too short to worry about trivial things. People will always show their true colors, ESPECIALLY when things go wrong in your life. Stay true to the people who stay by your side during tough times, and drop the people who don’t.
- Learn to let things go. Seriously. It’s easier said than done, but don’t even waste your time tripping over things that really at the end of the day don’t matter. If it’s not a life or death issue – try not to stress or lose sleep over it. One day you’ll look back and wonder why you stressed over something so insignificant!
- If you’re unhappy with something in your life, change it. Whether it’s a job, relationship, friendship, or city. If you don’t want to change it, man up and deal with it. There are always people who have it way worse than you do, and you are usually responsible for the results in your life.
- Never settle. Ever. Whether it’s with your career, with a friendship, or with a relationship. While attached to my chemo pole, I always think to myself about how many times I’ve settled in life, especially in relationships. Wasted time is worse than wasted money. I knew I was settling at the time, and knew I deserved better, but didn’t do anything about it until it was too late. Don’t look back on your life and realize how many times you settled below your standards!
- Make health a priority. You don’t realize how important health is until you don’t have it. And don’t take it for granted.
- We are not promised tomorrow so be happy TODAY! You don’t want to lay in a hospital bed for days on end fighting for your life and look back and regret spending most of your life hating yourself, your job, your relationship, etc.
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