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  • Best Self Magazine

    From The Eye of The Storm: A Personal Account of Stage 4 Cancer

    by Valynda Planeta Nov 14, 2017 5 minutes
    From the Eye of the Storm, by Valynda Planeta. Stage 4 Cancer

    Photograph by Anna Bay

    A 37 year old mother’s raw account of her battle with stage 4 breast cancer — squeezing the joy from amidst her struggle

    —

    What is it like to have cancer? Hmm, the best way to describe it is your life gets flash-forwarded, flipped, turned upside down and then in the quiet and stillness of a moment a third eye is opened — to see what is important. You’ve joined the club you never wanted to join. Your world is literally rocked, halted and life swirls around you. Certain moments stop and stand still, some come and go in a flash, thankfully, then there are others that leave you wondering, Why me?

    I’ve been on this cancer journey since December of 2015. I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer at the fresh age of 36.

    I grew up organic, I never smoked, I exercised often, it doesn’t run in my family. Is it the environment? Is it We all know if we find the why we find the cure. Once I accepted the fact that I’ll never know why or how I got sick, then I was on the road to healing.

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