Supporting Your Friends Through Your Cancer

Say what? You know that line ' don ' t my your problems, my problems ' ? This is clearly the case here. Yes, sometimes your friends want emotional support because of your illness.One of my closest friends mostly vanished from my life during my treatment. Yes she has a very busy schedule and she had a small child at that time. Her mother was also very ill. But I missed her emotional support during that time.Currently and in the past, we would talk at least once a week and get together once a month. But during that treatment time period, I didn ' t talk to her for months. I had other friends but I missed her. Later one of our mutual friends told me she had a very hard time dealing with my diagnosis. So maybe it was better we did not talk as often.I am not blaming her at all. I had enough going on dealing with my diagnosis and treatment that I couldn ' t have coped with anything else. Today ' s 'Ask Amy' column rang a bell for me:" Dear Amy: I ’ve recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and have focused my emotional bandwidth on my family, my health and curing my cancer. I have a huge support system that includes family and friends. One of my close friends is having trouble coming to terms with my diagnosis, as well as my not taking her up on her offers of help (yet)." This friend called a few nights ago sobbing and looking to me to help her feel better about my diagnosis and my long-term prospects. My diagnosis isn ’t as good as it could be, but it’s also not as bad as...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer support friends stress Source Type: blogs