After you hear those wonderful words, ” You are complete with your treatments”, there are still things you need to think about.
We look forward to hearing those words and savor the moment they finally ring into our ears. But, just like the diagnosis, the journey doesn’t end in that split second. There still is after care to think about down the line – follow up appointments, scans, blood work, and regular checks for a period of time, sometimes years. It would be so nice to walk away and never look back, but we also need to understand that there are times of recurrence, different side effects, and general health matters to address. This is where your learned organizational skills will repeat themselves. Keep notes up to date, keep medications up to date, appointments, any changes in health, behavior, etc. in an organized fashion. This will make life so much easier down the line when trying to remember everything that happened in the past along with all of the present. You have a full life besides this one of healing and you need to keep your brain and memory intact. Even the smallest bit of information can help a doctor on a follow-up checkup. Don’t ignore all of this during remission just because you think it is finally over because down the line you will regret not having any kind of notes to go back to. My parents had two years to remember, then a few after surgery to re-cap every time I went back into the hospital. It did not end there for me and continued into adulthood. Now, 40 years and counting later, it would have been nice to have those notes of my mothers to just hand over to the doctors when asked the battery of questions. I have to work off of memory, even when writing my story. I never kept a journal logging information. It was difficult to remember. So please take this piece of advice from someone who truly has been there.
