10/19/2018
Denise Cusick Underwood made this comment a month after writing her blog, I think there’s a message for us in her beautiful acknowledgment of the work we all continue to do as breast cancer survivors:
"When I wrote my story, I did it because I had something to say and it felt right. I hoped that it might inspire someone else who needed to hear my story because of their journey. I also wrote it over a month ago, with plenty of time to get used to the idea of it being posted publicly and all of the normal emotions that go along with putting yourself out there – being vulnerable and being seen. As Brene Brown says, “willingly getting into the arena and showing up – the hard stuff.” When October arrived and I started reading all of the survivor stories that Handful was posting, I was blown away. I thought: how insightful, brave and incredible these warrior women were! And at the same time, I felt so small. I had to really work with myself and dig down through some layers to find out where this was coming from – I actually didn’t feel worthy enough to be a breast cancer survivor – what the hell?!!!!! It reminded me that we are all always working on our worthiness, or at least we should be. I went back to my notes from Brene Brown on shame resilience, and I dug myself out. I decided that I’m not afraid to be seen, heard and vulnerable. That it’s far scarier to be alone, unconnected, unseen, and unheard. ❤️"
This past June, I marked 8 years of surviving and thriving! My pathology was triple negative -- which translates to, “we have no stinking clue what’s causing this cancer to grow” -- with medium to rapidly growing cells. I had ten lymph nodes removed on my left side and as a result did develop ...
