How has your diagnosis affected you emotionally?

[MaddieHU]

What emotions have been most prevalent throughout your diagnosis and how have you dealt with them?

[lyanne_sys Administrator SYSF]

One of the projects that I am working on with Save Your Skin Foundation is a wellness page. The goal of the page is to provide a broad range of strategies and resources to help manage the emotional challenges that patients and caregivers are faced with. Strategies for managing overwhelm, for managing catastrophic thinking, for maintaining Hope. The page will constantly grow and change. I see it as a dynamic process. If there is a particular emotion or challenge you wish you had better resources for; or maybe you found a great resource that really helped you through a particular challenge. You can check out the beginning of our growing wellness page at the link below

saveyourskin.ca/emotional-a...

[canada123 in reply to lyanne_sys]

This sounds like a wonderful resource which will provide much needed support to many.

[canada123]

I think I probably went through a whole greaving process. I remember feeling devastated and crying in the shower and in my husbands arms. I was afraid of the future and the thought of leaving him to raise our two children alone. After that I think I took on the feeling of determination- I was going to beat this cancer no matter what. Now I still deal with anxiety and fear towards the sun. I think I said it before. I am trying not to be the crazy sunscreen and hat person but I am the crazy sunscreen and hat person. I also have a anxiety and fear with each appointment and subsequent biopsy. I am trying really hard not to have fear when I lol at my own moled/freckled skin.

[Meloney SYSF Ambassador]

Emotionally I'm much more guarded, I think. It seems that it's always in the back of my mind that my disease could come back and then I'd have to go through the whole emotional roller coaster again of preparing to say goodbye to everyone and everything I love. I said it in the last post, I don't allow just anyone in my 'circle' anymore. I do everything I can to stay on an even keel and not let my emotions sway too far one way or the other.

[nataliemelanoma Administrator SYSF Ambassador SYSF]

I too went through a devastating roller coaster of emotions after diagnosis, and it still lingers today, even four years later. I alternated between crushing lows and feelings of grief and defeat to an irrational determination to beat the disease, all while feeling out of control on both ends of the spectrum. I too experience anxiety and fear of the sun, and I too am more guarded than I used to be. I focus on my kids and my work and that's about all I have capacity for - though that is pretty fulfilling in itself, I'm sure not complaining! My outlet has been blogging, I write to get it out, and it turns out I was able to maintain my sense of humour while dealing with everything that came along with cancer.