The Treatment Roadmap
Jun 07, 2022
The Call
The phone was pressed against my ear yet the voice was quickly fading into the distance. “Maggie, you have breast cancer”…
I don't remember much else she had to say on the phone that day. The words "you have breast cancer" consumed me. Everything just shrunk down in my world. I felt paralyzed in overwhelm and fear.
The thought of dealing with cancer… the treatments, the appointments, not feeling well, and specifically the TIME I had to commit to all that?! I was working 60-70 hours per week. I wasn’t carving out time to take care of myself. How was I supposed to fit in dealing with cancer too?
The Treatment Roadmap
Does anyone come into this journey prepared with how they might navigate it? I quickly realized that I was going to have to make ME a bigger priority. I had to figure out what it looked like to slow down and create space and time for the healing that I knew my body was going to need. Priorities had to shift.
I started to draw out a basic structure to capture treatments and procedures on a piece of paper, which became what I called my "roadmap". I wanted and needed a visual to look at for what was ahead, not just a bunch of appointments and dates in MyChart. I wanted to SEE when/how the plan my medical team was sharing got this cancer out of my body. This all of course evolved and changed over time as I learned more about specific treatments and timing. I had no idea the power of this exercise would have for me.
How can a treatment roadmap help me?
- It gives you a visual to focus on... when the overwhelm and fear of all of the procedures and treatments take us... we can pause, breathe and look at the one next step.
- You can see the progress made in your journey as you check off each of the treatments,. Celebrate those achievements and days, as you are doing the hard work.
- It becomes an easy way to share updates with family and friends - to answer their questions about what treatments you have undergone and when... and what comes next. Save yourself time and energy by sharing one source of information for all. This can be achieved by sending as a picture, posting on a private website or CaringBridge site, etc.
- Save it as a historical record to reference later if needed
How can I get an easy template to use?
I am sharing my treatment roadmap template for FREE. Access the first Healing Companion eBook here to download this tool (and others).
