PiNK Summer 2013 by Paradigm

PiNK Summer 2013

THE NEXT BIG THING When cancer patients transition from active treatment to survivorship, many find that they are at a loss of how to manage ongoing physical and emotional challenges. Providers hope that increased resources and comprehensive survivorship programming will help these survivors thrive. By Diana Price

hristy Stickney was 42 years

recovery. It was after her treatment was

doing whatever was needed to beat

old, newly married, and a busy

complete, when she was supposed to

this monster. So why now was I in this

mom to five kids when she

move on with her life, that Christy found

dark place, ready to end it all?”

was diagnosed with breast cancer in

herself in a deep depression, not sure

2010. Determined to fight the disease,

how to move forward.

Christy says, she faced the challenge

“Here I was, five months out of

It was the transition from active treatment to recovery that presented a chasm Christy didn’t know how to

head-on. “After my diagnosis it was

chemo, my main surgeries behind me,

bridge: “My prognosis was good, yet

game on,” she says. “There was no

and all I could think about was going

I felt like the life preserver I had been

way that cancer would beat me.”

to sleep and never waking up,” she

using for the past year and a half had

Christy underwent a double

says. Christy had come through the

been taken away. I was told to swim

mastectomy, breast reconstruction,

challenges of diagnosis and treatment

to shore, yet I had no arms. I should

and chemotherapy. She experienced

only to find that it was recovery—

be able to do this, yet I was drowning.

side effects that included hair loss,

physical and emotional—that seemed

My surgical team and oncologist were

fatigue, and “chemo brain,” but she

the biggest hurdle yet. “During my

some of the best in our area, yet here I

kept fighting—right up until the point

cancer battle, I never considered giving

was, so completely ill-prepared for the

she was supposed to be on the road to

up,” she says. “I was laser-focused on

next part of my journey—recovery.”

PINK • SUMMER 2013