I know someone…..

Stories of Cancer Survival

Whenever something happens in someone’s life, people have stories about someone they know who had a similar experience. 

Mostly that’s a good thing. 

It does normalize every situation when you hear so many people have experienced the same thing. It’s amazing to me how many people know someone who has had pancreatic cancer.  

Sometimes it’s their sister’s husband’s best friend’s uncle’s son. But, many times it was a parent, friend or someone they loved dearly. These are the tougher stories to hear. Sometimes people can’t actually tell their story because it’s just still too painful.

When I first became ill, I heard numerous stories of remarkable survival. Since most people don’t really know a person’s journey and are confused about pancreatic cancer stage 4, sometimes the stories didn’t seem that accurate or believable. That’s when the stories became hard to hear. 

Now that I have survived longer than any of us suspected possible, the stories have shifted to people who didn’t survive very long. The shift seems strange to me and these stories can be hard to hear too. Loss is so sad.

I never know if a story is going to helpful or haunting, so I listen to each story. I never want people to stop telling me their stories, I just need to be very prepared for what I’m about to hear.

I also realized that since it’s so unusual to survive so long, I may have become the main character in the stories people tell of someone they know who has survived. I hope I can keep this up to help with the stories. Also, I hope I provide an encouraging story for someone dealing with pancreatic cancer.