My name is Elga, and my story is similar to that of many other women: a story of regular check-ups and periodic breast prevention that one day lead to a diagnosis of breast cancer.
Confusion, anger, resignation, a multitude of feelings, including the temptation to give up, crowded inside me. Such news is comparable to a train hitting you and then backing up several times, so that you, in addition to physical pain, have the perception of the terror that is descending upon you.
I had suddenly lost control of my life and had to let others take care of me. I had to rely on the love of my son, who strongly supported me, extraordinary doctors who competently guided me through the therapeutic process, psychotherapy, nurses, heavy medications, and my love for life.
Cancer, however, is a battle that one faces alone, with one's own courage as the strongest tool and with the haste to return to "before," to what we were.
Cancer is a cellular pathology, like many other diseases, but cancer is often associated with obscure causes that make the patient feel guilty and often identified with the disease.
I also often hear oncology patients being told phrases like "you have to fight", "don't give up", "if you fight it, you'll win": stupid phrases because those who have cancer have only one chance to get out of it, namely that the therapies work.
Cancer is a medical battle, not a psychological one, and while mental strength is important, it is also important to recognize that if a patient does not survive, it is not because they did not fight hard enough.
I did not face the disease with a smile because, anyway, cancer is not fought with impossible optimism or exhortations. Cancer is treated in the operating room, with medication and a healthy lifestyle.
I have learned, not without difficulty, to avoid sinking into anxiety and not being overwhelmed by the fear of inevitable processes like chemotherapy.
I began to think that even if I had breast cancer, I was not cancer. I was something else. Having in-depth information about the disease and the stages of therapy helped me a lot because facing reality through knowledge helps understand one's path and helps deal with it. Like a compass in pain.
The sensations experienced at that moment triggered in me a strong rebellion against the reality of the disease, and the first step after treatment was to immediately resume my work, with the valuable support of colleagues and friends, appreciating the importance of simple things.
I close my story with applause for the recent law against cancer oblivion, the result of the political sensitivity of those who listened to me, which today puts back at the center those who have lived and overcome a similar experience and who have the right to find their spaces and their social capacity to the fullest.
My last thought, but the most important, goes to the women I met along this journey who, unfortunately, are no longer here.