When did you, or when will you be willing to call yourself a survivor?

i think it can depend on your age when you get cancer. I'm 40 and won't feel calling myself one until i'm at least 65 because I wasn't willing to die any time sooner than that before getting cancer.

I think that you are a survivor from the moment you are diagnosed until the moment you die.

If you die of something else, other people can still say you were a survivor, but you won't care anymore

 

I am a survivor now, as in I am not dead. Being a survivor in my definition does not mean cured/healed. Kind of like going through a bad accident or natural disaster. I have some collateral damage, but I am alive and well and enjoying life.

Goodlife

I remember reading somewhere about a man who preferred to call himself a "cancer warrior" rather than a survivor, because "survivor" sounds too passive, whereas "warrior" conveys that it's an ongoing struggle.

I think of myself as someone who has been treated for prostate cancer, rather than a prostate cancer survivor, though I do use that term, from time to time for convenience.  I had surgery just after my 65th birthday and would probably have lived at least 5 or 6 years (a guess, of course) without treatment, so until I get beyond the point in my life where the cancer would likely have done me in, I'm not technically a prostate cancer survivor. If I don't have an eventual recurrence, I guess it would then be right to consider myself a prostate cancer survivor.

Post Edited (clocknut) : 4/6/2011 3:25:53 PM (GMT-6)

Thanks, Dan, and then I went and edited to read differently.  Maybe I should have left is as you quoted it:  a survivor of prostate cancer treatment.

Ger 42--congrats on a good outcome. All the best to you in the upcoming Relay for Life!

This coming Winter, I will celebrate my 30th year of survivorship from a cancer (clear cell sarcoma) which I had back in 1981. Luckily was able to enter a sarcoma study being accomplished by the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD and was provided with Chemo, Surgery and Radiation. Now just about 30 years after all that stuff I have/HAD prostate cancer. Have been treated wilth Brachytherapy last May and I should be good for another ten or fifteen years. Better mention that my 75th birthday will be rolling around also this coming Winter. Hey, life is great and a lot of great support has really helped me.

Dan I didn't answer the question and agree with some of the others...

I think we are cancer survivors the moment we take our first action to get well. For me it happened in my urologists office soon after he walked in and told me and my wife "well there's a little cancer down there". I was there watching him describe what actions were available to me ~ and as foggy as that memory may be ~ I remember thinking that immediately I was going to have to do something because I wasn't ready to die yet. I survived that day and each stepping stone along the way.

To me those are better answer selections to a different question ~ When do you call yourself cured?

Edited to answer my own question using the above table: When do you call yourself cured? I won't ~ I don't like the term

Tony

Like many, I dislike the term "cancer survivor". To me it seems, I don't know, melodramatic or something. As Tony pointed out, "surviving" would also imply that one has been cured. After four years, I'm not ready to go the "I'm cured" route yet. I'm sure the old PSA tests will continue to cause me to pause and think for years to come. On the other hand, like they say, ain't none of us going to survive life so we all need to make the best of it PCa or no PCa.....

same here. I think we don't have pc anymore but are aware that it could pop up again at anytime.

Many people die during their marriage so one could deduce that marriage can be a terminal condition. Thus I am a 37 year marriage survivor.

My wife would now be a two time breast cancer survivor....but, if we either survive or not, how can we survive twice?

I don't like the term. I am a survivor of this life and all that comes with it until I pass on to the next life. I like to think that I am being treated for prostate cancer and trust I am in a long term remission. Thus, I can turn my treatment concerns to other conditions that may be more life threatening.

It is a verb while your PSA remains low, after being diagnosed & treated- during that time you are surviving.  On the day you die, from something other than prostate cancer, it becomes a noun and your gravestone can indicate you were prostate cancer survivor.  That is the way I see it.