Elephants and Tea - September 2022 - 40

Conversation LESSONS LEARNED WITH LISA
You're Not Alone If...
NO ONE PREPARED YOU FOR HOW DIFFICULT
SURVIVORSHIP WOULD BE
CANCER CROSSES YOUR MIND EVERY SINGLE
DAY, EVEN YEARS OUT OF TREATMENT
THERE ARE THINGS, PLACES, SMELLS, AND PHRASES
THAT IMMEDIATELY TRIGGER YOUR ANXIETY
YOU ARE STILL FIGURING OUT HOW TO INCORPORATE
SELF-CARE INTO YOUR DAILY ROUTINE
I
HER FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
40
ELEPHANTSANDTEA.COM
SEPTEMBER 2022
t feels like I have lived 10 lifetimes since December 2018. A cancer diagnosis
in January 2019, turned into nine months of active treatment followed by
five months of trying to wrap my brain around what just happened to me
before going straight into a global pandemic that has now lasted 29 months
and counting. It's safe to say that I truly do not remember what life B.C.B.C.
(before COVID, before cancer) was like. My children were one and three
years old at the time of my diagnosis, and I think anyone with children would
agree that the idea of self-care with kids that young seems like a foreign
language; an impossible task. I was lucky if I got to escape to take a warm
shower without a child calling for me. However, when you are forced to stare your
own mortality in the face at the age of 31, your perspective changes.
The cliché saying of putting on your own oxygen mask before others now
rings loud and clear in my mind. I have learned through my experience with
cancer that taking care of yourself is not selfish-and while I would have much
rather come to that conclusion in a different way, I am glad that I see it now.
Am I still trying to figure out what self-care looks like in my life? Absolutely.
But you know what? I have been changed by the things I have been through.
I am still here making the effort, one day at a time.
LISA ORR IS A PROUD WIFE AND MOTHER OF TWO BOYS, AGES SEVEN AND FOUR, WHO LIVES
JUST NORTH OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. SHE IS A THREE-YEAR TRIPLE NEGATIVE BREAST
CANCER SURVIVOR AND A FORMER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER, WHO NOW DEVOTES
HER TIME TO HELP OTHER YOUNG ADULTS FACING A CANCER DIAGNOSIS THROUGH HER
WORK AS THE MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER FOR THE STEVEN G. CANCER
FOUNDATION AND ELEPHANTS AND TEA MAGAZINE AND THROUGH HER PODCAST, THE
" DON'T CALL IT A JOURNEY PODCAST " (STREAMING ON APPLE PODCASTS AND SPOTIFY). IN
HER FREE TIME SHE LOVES TO WRITE, COOK, TRAVEL, AND ENJOYS SPENDING TIME WITH
http://www.ELEPHANTSANDTEA.COM
Elephants and Tea - September 2022

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