What helped you through the transition from treatment to life after treatment?

[Mary]

It seems to be a universal phenomenon - we get close to finishing treatment, and most of us get anxious and unsure of what life is going to be like after treatment.

What was the transition like for you?

Do you remember any ways of thinking that helped you adjust to no longer receiving chemo?

How long did it take for the anxiety to lessen?

What do you wish you had heard from other survivors that would have made it easier?

[Rene]

It seems to be a universal phenomenon - we get close to finishing treatment, and most of us get anxious and unsure of what life is going to be like after treatment.

What was the transition like for you?

Do you remember any ways of thinking that helped you adjust to no longer receiving chemo?

How long did it take for the anxiety to lessen?

What do you wish you had heard from other survivors that would have made it easier?

The transition from chemo every 2-3 weeks to nothing was hard for me. I had been in the fight of my life and now I was on my own so to speak. I felt, especially at first, that if I let my guard down cancer would sneak back up on me. It took months to not feel like that.

I'm not sure I had anxiety, I think I had worries but they have lessened for me. About once a week I daydream about the what if's. It's been only 5 months and every time I go for scans I get a sick feeling in my stomach.

I heard, especially here on ABC, that life would be different but a new normal would return. I especially appreciated the "cheering on" as I made the count down to my last chemo. I can't think of anything I wish I would have been told that could have made it easier.

[Garret]

Not sure if I have any direct words of wisdom on this one.  I guess the best thing to focus is on is that your anxiety levels definitely decrease somewhat your treatments stop, ie/you don't have that continual feeling of dread at the thought of the next round of chemo, etc. on the horizon.  I remember it used to take me so long to recouperate at home between treatments that by the time I was due to back in for the next round, I felt somewhat better physically but mentally it was like someone was building another wall in front of me after I'd just scaled the last one!

I guess its like being on a rollercoast ride for so long and then someone taps you on the shoulder and says, "right, time to get off sonny!"  Its a very hard adjustment at first but believe me, once the reality sets in that you no longer have to make those (in my case) 3 day trips to the hospital to be, how should I say this, poisoned (!!), the relief and positive thoughts will gradually build within you. 

The trick is to just take it one day at a time.  If you start focusing too far into the future, thats when you begin to panic and the end result will be stress and further anxiety.  Take it one day at a time is probably the best advice I can give.

[Cari]

One thing that I had to learn through chemo was to take each day at a time--a lot of times each minute at a time--I think the one thing that I had to learn after treatment is take one day at a time hahah.....it was VERY hard for me to transition.  I never realized that the time after treatment would be spent at physical therapy, combating pain, getting used to taking pain pills in a responsible way, learning all that and how to live within my new body PLUS get back to supporting myself by returning to work and doing the daily things that I didn't think twice about before...
I think it gets easier as time goes on- it's just another thing to get through.