Cancer and a Good Bra

It's been about a month now that I've been off chemotherapy. Physically I feel great. I find my body is feeling pretty much normal. Other than a little fatigue I have no complaints. How is it possible that I've been diagnosed with a terminal disease yet I feel fine? This fact haunts me on a daily basis. My life largely proceeds like usual but I get the occasional short burst of sheer terror when I realize that the mean survival rate for people like me will be over at Christmas.

One of the common comments I get from friends and family about living with cancer is "I don't know how you do it!". I assume that this comment is made in relation to moving on with life while living with a terminal disease. I really have no explanation on how it's done other than to say that I've found a 'new normal'. Like everybody else I detest cliches like that that seem so simple but don't come with instructions. 'Live every day like it's your last' is one of my favourites. It sounds great but how the hell do you implement it? As for finding a 'new normal' the only comparison I can come up with is that it must be like having boobs. See at first having boobs must be fun and exciting. But, after a very, very long time, the novelty wears off (so I'm told). And so it is with cancer, albeit cancer is never as fun as boobs. At first cancer is overwhelming and scary and life altering. But after a while normalcy creeps back in. Bills have to be paid, kids fed and friendships maintained. It's just life catching up with the diagnosis. Like a good bra, you hold it all together somehow and make it look good.