• When people offer to help, take them up on it.
• Keep asking questions about the treatments recommended for your breast cancer care. Your physician or team of physicians are very important, but also try to get information from a patient who has gone through similar treatments. Often, another patient can provide you with tips about how to cope with your diagnosis and can help you understand what to expect.
• Prioritize your activities. Remember to keep some fun and relaxing activities in your schedule, and do not hesitate to delegate some activities to others, like house chores and child care, etc.
• Read books about breast cancer that include information about treatments and about what to expect and how to cope. Remember that not every situation is going to apply to yours and not every outcome in breast cancer will be the same. This disease is NOT the same in everyone.
• Take a friend or family member with you to your doctor’s appointments. If you think it will help, take a tape recorder, and ask your doctor if you can tape the interview so that you can review it later. Before your appointments, write down one to five key questions, so that you get answers for your most important questions.
• Recognize that your journey is an individual one; there is no “right” way to act or feel. It is normal to feel guilty, angry and sad, but it is also normal to feel just okay. Some people wonder if something is wrong with them if they are not upset.
• Remember thousands of women have been exactly where you are now and have survived!

• Consider reconstruction if you have a mastectomy. In the meantime, invest in some good prosthetics.
• Be prepared for premature menopause and for the possibility that after chemotherapy your period might come back—so you may go through menopause all over again.
• Talk to your doctor about your fertility concerns.
• Find and read about other young women with breast cancer and their unique issues through the Young Survival Coalition. 

• Tell someone, share the burden. Your friend will help you deal with your diagnosis. And if he or she says, “How can I help you?” tell your friend what you need.
• Give yourself permission to grieve, to be angry, to be scared.
• Remember that you did not do anything wrong. Some individuals with breast cancer feel guilty because they believe they could have prevented their cancer. Quit worrying about what you did wrong or what you neglected to do right.
• Don’t get caught up with “attitude.” Recognize and accept how you feel about your cancer, and don’t let anyone tell you how you should feel.
• Write down your thoughts and feelings in a journal. In a few months, you’ll see how far you’ve come.
• Think about other very difficult times in your life, and remember how you felt and how you got through them. What strategies worked? What didn’t work?
• Give yourself some quiet places and times. They will help you heal.
• Escape when you can. You don’t have to think about having breast cancer twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Your cancer will still be there when you get back to it! Try to go an hour, then three, and then six without thinking about it. Read a book, listen to music, go to the movies. Escape for a while.
• Give yourself a “hook” into the future to help pull yourself through the present. Think about the visit you’ll have with your family, the vacation you will go on, and the color you’re going to paint your bedroom—anything that you look forward to.
• Connect with others. You are not the first, nor will you be the last to go through diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Learn from those who have walked this path; share with those who are just starting.

• Exercise. Staying in shape or getting in shape will help you recover and will definitely make you feel better. It doesn’t matter how much or how little you can do; just exercise when you can, and try to do it regularly.
• Breathe. As often as you think to do it, start a big, deep breath somewhere around the level of your belly button. Inhale until you can’t inhale any more, and release the breath slowly. Repeat two or three times, and you’ll find you’ve relaxed.
• Laugh as often and as hard as you can. Laughter is really good for you, especially when you’re laughing at yourself.
• Drink plenty of water to keep yourself hydrated.
• The best nutritional supplement is a generic multivitamin each day. Avoid other supplements because they may diminish the effect of treatments you are going to undergo.

• Pamper yourself before you start chemotherapy. Get a facial, manicure and pedicure; chemotherapy can be hard on your skin and nails.
• Get your head shaved, or at least consider cutting it shorter to help reduce the shock that you may experience when your hair starts to fall out. If you do shave your hair off, make a party of it; do it with some friends and some good wine.
• Don’t be surprised when you realize that all of your hair falls out, including your eyelashes and eyebrows. Be grateful that you don’t need to shave your legs.
• Find your own style; you don’t have to wear a wig. Many women wear scarves, hats or just go bald. Remember to do whatever makes you comfortable. When you feel comfortable, those who see you will feel more relaxed about your appearance.
• Take advantage of the help that is available to you: sign up on-line for Chemoangels; go to the American Cancer Society (ACS) program Look Good, Feel Better; join a support group.
• Get out as much as you feel like it; work if you can and want to.
• Mix a “healthy shake” with vanilla ice cream.

• Use the cream recommended by your radiation oncologist from the start; don’t wait until you start to burn.

Information on this page was developed by the Alamo City Breast Cancer Council Planning Committee.  It was not reviewed by the Review Commitee.