Kelly Shanahan wrestled with the idea that despite having access to the best medical information available as a working physician, she found herself on the receiving end of a cancer diagnosis.
“I don’t have to wait a week like most patients do,” Shanahan explained.
Read MoreShanahan struggled to shake the feeling of guilt that cancer had snuck up on her.
“Because I’m a doctor, and I should have found my early-stage lumps sooner. I should have looked for symptoms sooner. I should have picked up my own cancer,” she said.
“It’s taken me a long time to realize that it’s not my fault that it happened,” she admitted.
“Sh*t happens even to the best trained and the best prepared.”
Despite the awkward feeling that her diagnosis was somehow her own fault, she eventually realized it was not. Her takeaway message after being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer is, “We’re only human.”
By the way, some people in the metastatic breast cancer community don’t like the word “survivor” because they say there is no cure yet for them, and the word is not appropriate.
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