After cancer treatment ends, friends and family often expect us to be ‘better’ within a week. They look for us to be ‘back to normal,’ returning to work, handling family responsibilities, and resuming an active life within weeks or months. But the truth is very different. Many of us did survive the cancer, but our bodies carry the hidden damage of the treatments that saved us. Kidney damage, stents, GI issues, incontinence, nerve damage, neuropathy, crippling weakness, and relentless fatigue are just a few of the lasting effects. What others see as the end of the battle is, for us, the beginning of living with its consequences. We survived the war, but our bodies and our ‘normal’ functioning became the collateral damage. We are alive, but we will never be the same.
