Looking after your mental, physical, and emotional health is an essential part of living well.
Thats especially true when youre dealing with an illness like triple negativebreast cancer.
That might sound like a good thing.
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None of these receptors to fuel cancers growth cant be bad, right?
But its not that simple.
But triple negative breast cancer can still be more aggressive and difficult to treat than other breast cancers.
(Heres more informationabout how triple negative breast cancer differs from other forms of the disease.)
Receiving a diagnosis of triple negative breast cancer can make an already dizzying experience even more confusing and scary.
In reality, self-care is most likely the last thing on your mind, and thats completely understandable.
Self-care cant fix everything, but it might make an emotionally and physically trying time a little bit easier.
Here, four women with triple negative breast cancer share how they practice self-care.
The way Chelseas friends and family have rallied to support her is incredibly helpful and touching, she says.
But shes also found the constant attention and offers to help overwhelming at times.
During treatment, I turned my phone off for hours throughout the day, Chelsea tells SELF.
That way I didnt feel pressured to respond to people right away.
While she was tuning others out, Chelsea pampered herself.
That attention to the here and now has helped Samantha reframe worries that her cancer will return as well.
So I might as well enjoy my life, she says.
At times in this process, she felt as though cancer stripped her of her womanhood, she says.
Looking into a mirror and not seeing a single hair on your head is heartbreaking, Kelly tells SELF.
I’m talking the whole shebang: no hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes.
I could’ve pulled the sheets over my head and wallowed … but that’s not me.
Instead, Kelly went to a wig shop and treated herself to a handful of amazing options.
She watched YouTube tutorials for headwraps.
She looked right into the mirror and expertly drew on eyebrows each day.
I felt like me again, she says.
And, she says, she learned that she looks damn good in a wig.
Engaging in meditation
I nevermeditatedbefore breast cancer …
I honestly thought it was kind of hocus pocus,Melissa B., 47, tells SELF.
I thought, Why are you telling me this?
I have chemo and doctors appointments, Melissa recalls.
Meditation helped her reduce heranxious feelings, she says.
It also helped hersleep, which, for Melissa, calls to mind advice from her grandma Sylvia.
She always said, Naps are lifes greatest luxury, and they really are, Melissa says.
