When do you begin to call yourself a survivor?

I'm done with surgery, chemo. and rads. but I know that this could still come back. My Oncologist isn't calling me a survivor until at least 5 years out. So when exactly do you consider yourself a survivor? I still feel very much like I am fighting this daily.

Edited by PauldingMom - Feb 24 2010 at 3:52pm

I was told you start counting at your surgical date - which was the first thing I did so I like that idea, I've survived a year - woot. But if you start with chemo or whatever treatment, I think you should start counting then too! You have one chemo, whoa baby you are a survivor IMO. Hell, living thru the day they tell you that you have cancer makes you a survivor.

IDC, 2.2 cm, Stage IIb,lumpectomy 1/30/09 ACx4,Tx4 36 rads
6/1/16 Local recurrence same breast, same spot 1.8cm Carb.4x every 3 wks, Taxol 12x once wk. Dbl Mast. PCR!! Reconstruction fail, NED!

I think your oncologist is being very "stingy." I'll tell you what a nurse friend of mine tells newly-diagnosed people: "If you drive home after hearing your diagnosis without getting in an accident, you are a survivor!" That's the definition I've used. Smile

Diagnosed 9/86. 1 cm tumor, 22 positive lymph nodes. CMFVP chemo, weekly for one year. 7 weeks radiation. BRCA2-positive. Multiple attempts at reconstruction (three's a charm)

I consider myself a survivor since the day of my DX..which is 2 yrs and 5 months to the day tomorrow! LOL I am headed out to the Young Survivors BC Conference in Atlanta tomorrow and I am so EXCITED to be with soo many other Young Survivors!

XOXo,

Regina

39 yr old. DX Metaplastic Carcenoma/Triple Negative IIIb 9-26-07, bilat mod rad MX 10-1-07, 2.7cm in Chest Wall. Dense dose Chemo 11/07-03/08 AC/Tax. NED 4-09 YEA! Deconstructed 12-13-10 & Happy!

YEAH Autumn!!!!!

St 2 Gr 3, A/C/T, DD
Radiation x35
Rec chest wall 07/09
Radiation x28
NED 10/24/11
NED 10/5/12
NED 03/15/13

I've always wondered what the big deal was about the word survivor. Who cares what date you start counting from? I think the old five year rule doesn't apply anymore. I was dx 23 years ago and was cancer free until Jan. of 09. Now I'm stage IV, and I don't even remember what day in Jan. got the news. I'm living with cancer. The survivor label means nothing to me.

Susan 62 1987 Stage 1 1/09 Stage IV bilat. mast. liver mets BRCA1+ Taxol & Avastin
8/09 NED
12/09 liver mets Taxol/Avastin
4/10 liver mets
11/22 Parp Car/gem
parp failed
2/2011 Ixempra

Hello Paulding mom,

Today I noticed a women that had a scar above her breast (she was wearing a loose top) and I asked her if I could ask her a personal question, and she replied yes. I asked her if she had a port, and she said yes, that she had been ten years cancer free and now it has come back in her other breast. She told me that she too was triple negative and she said to not give up hope and to be strong, I thanked her and told her that I would pray for her, she thanked me and left.

I posted the question on another forum if it was the same cancer or another and I got this reply from a retired oncologist,

"Probably a new primary breast carcinoma in the other breast Dave.

We don't think breast carcinomas spread to the opposite breast.
This one may have very different receptors compared to the one ten years ago.
Hopefully an early stage and curable."

Source(s):

MD medical oncologist

So, for ten years she was a survivor and she still is. I asked our oncologist, Dr. Kristine Rinn out of the Swedish Cancer Clinic in Seattle when do you count the time you are a survivor and she said the minute of your diagnosis. I think it is important because the longer you are NED, the better it is that it might not return. From my post in the other forum, it sounds like a new cancer tumor, I could see the strength this women had, very powerful and determined and I know (I am a good judge of character that she has it in her to beat this cancer too, like she did the first one).

Dave

Wife diagnosed 7/08 stage 2B 4.78cm with 3 nodes. 15 weeks of Adriamycin and Cytoxin, Mastectomy, 12 weeks of Taxol, and 6.5 weeks of radiation.