GUEST POST BY JACKI DONALDSON

A girl I know was just diagnosed with breast cancer. I say girl because she is young – like under-35 young – and, well, she’s really not supposed to get the disease. It’s apparently not all that common for young women. In fact, just under 7 percent of all breast cancer cases occur in women under 40 years old. Still, it seems like so many are hearing that dreaded string of words: you-have-cancer.

Fortunately, many are surviving, too. And that’s why I’m pretty darn sure my friend will one day look back and marvel at her survival. Just like I do.

My diagnosis came at me like a ton of bricks the day before Thanksgiving in 2004. I was 34 years old, living a happy little life as a wife and mom of two boys. Joey was almost 4, and Danny was 18 months, and more than anything when I first learned of the invader in my left breast, I feared I would die before my babies grew into men. Now that I’ve graduated from surgery, chemo, radiation, more drug therapy, counseling and a year-and-a-half dance with an anti-depressant, I have almost no worries at all. I guess it’s sort of an evolution – from sheer panic to peaceful calm – that has allowed me to be OK with the fact that I’ve had cancer, and to truly (truly!) believe it’s not coming back. Here’s some of what might have helped me move forward:

Therapy. The counseling and anti-depressant helped me stop weeping every time someone asked, “How are you?” They squashed the anxiety that kept balling up in my stomach, and they braced me until treatment was over and I could wean myself back into real life.

Blogging. It was my husband’s idea, to write down every step of the journey, so others could get updates without my retelling the story over and over and over again. my Breast Cancer blog started as a way to communicate, and it’s morphed into a living document, now five years long. It helps me to write, it brings in others who open up and share their stories, it’s even scored me writing gigs.

Support. I’m lucky, because of my rockin’ husband, my loving kids, my mom who lives in my neighborhood, and my sister who lives around the corner. Plus, I had a whole team of friends who came to my rescue with meals, gifts, letters, emails, a hand-made quilt — you name it, they delivered it. They kept me cushioned for a long time. I also had Chemo Angels – people I didn’t even know who wrote me letters of encouragement through chemotherapy.

Eating. I learned to eat right post-treatment. I’m not saying I’m a perfect eater or anything, but I know what my body needs and what it doesn’t need, and I try to make it all balance out so I can be as healthy as possible.

Exercising. Research shows that something like five strenuous hours of exercise per week can cut my chances of recurrence significantly, so I’m committed. I run (finished my first half-marathon this year), I walk, I swim, I do whatever I can to ensure my docs keep praising me for my low heart rate (last check = 50).

There’s more. I aim to keep stress low (I recently quit a job that was taking over my life and got a lovely new one), I go to all sorts of doc visits to keep on top of things (just went to my first “survival” appointment), I keep my eye on the prize (my family), and, mostly, I try like mad to cherish every. single. moment. of. every. single. day.

Jacki Donaldson is a wife, mom, freelance writer and editor. When she’s not blogging breast cancer at cancerspot.org, she’s usually spilling secrets about her kids at bravingboys.org