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A cancer diagnosis can shake you to your core and affect every aspect of your life. It can also leave you feeling overwhelmed with emotion and at a loss for words. In this blog, I am going to discuss the three lessons I learned during my cancer journey.
I give my credits to the best oncologist in Delhi, Dr Vikas Goswami for his support throughout this journey.
- History of Family Members – Everyone thinks that someone who has cancer then it can be inherited from family members. However, most cancer cases are not inherited, there are 5-10% chances of getting cancer cases from the heredity of family. People in the same family get cancer because they share the same lifestyle behavior. Cancer is not inherited through the same genes but also unhygienic eating habits, smoking, and not doing exercise regularly can play a major role in cancer. You can’t be able to change the genes but you can take necessary precautions that affect your health.
Having cancer is one of the most painful things that can happen to anyone. When I was at the age of 25, I heard from my gynecologist that I have cancer. It was shocking to me that I have cancer and I completely lost all my emotions. At that time my gynecologist asked me about my history of the family who has cancer and suddenly a thought came into my mind that my grandmother passed away a few months ago from cancer, I realize that it can be inherited from her from my mother’s genes. Knowing the history of the family can’t change my life but it can give me the ability to fight against this. I tried not to get too much panic in this situation because now there are so many better medical treatments available that are not available at my grandmother’s time. It provides me the better will to fight against this and win. So the history of the family sometimes plays a major role by getting affected by cancer disease but in my case, this is the only reason which gives me a lot of power to fight against this.
- Know about Diagnosis – Diagnosing cancer is the best chance to cure cancer disease. In this, we know at what stage and what type of screening you needed. Diagnosis includes Physical Tests, Laboratory Tests, Imaging Tests, and biopsy. After following all such tests then doctors can tell you about your stage of cancer and treatment which suits you.
Knowing my grandmother’s story motivates me to fight against cancer. So it was important for me to know about my diagnosis. I started to collect information that would be helpful for me to fight in this battle. I called my family members to ask about the treatment which my grandmother received at that time. In my case, my family doctor was very supportive with me. He suggests that I get a second opinion to confirm my diagnosis.
- Search all options and fight against what is right – After diagnosing the process a person has to search for options related to medical treatment, what medical care available, financial charges needed for taking treatment, what activities include in the treatment suggested by the doctor, research what is best at this time for him/her. An individual has to check all such things and then get prepared himself/herself for the treatment which is decided.
In my story, I also search for all options which are made available to me. But I was also confused about what would be better to remove the tumor or remove the entire organ? Is my life would be better after surgery? Does my cancer doesn’t affect me in the future? There are too many good and bad things surrounding my mind at that time.
I was happy to take a long term insurance plan which I have paid over the years for my surgery which I needed. I was too young to have the surgery which I wanted, my medical team suggested that I remove the tumor only but I want to remove the uterus. Now, this was a major issue to evaluate. I decided that I have to change my specialist because I want a surgeon who supports my decision also. I contacted my family doctor again and ensured that I had a doctor who supports my decisions and they sent me a letter of recommendation and records of treatment which I submitted to the insurance company and demanded for the surgery which would be the best for me and save my life. They agreed with my concern and granted me the payment for the surgery which I wanted.At last, I fought with my cancer successfully. This incident proved to me that if a person decides what we have to do then he can achieve everything in life.
I also want to thank my family doctor, Dr. Vikas Goswami, who is one of the best oncologist in Ghaziabad and Delhi NCR for his suggestion and recommendation that helped me throughout my journey of fighting against cancer.
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