As the calendar flips to October, no doubt we’ll be seeing a flood of pink. After all, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Not surprisingly, though, those of us who have dealt with breast cancer might have a complicated relationship with this “celebration.” It’s not really festive for us. We’ve lived through it, and while many people bandy about the terms “survivor” and “warrior,” some of us just don’t feel those apply.

Cancer is a tricky disease, one that messes with a person’s mind as much as it does the body.

I was broadsided by breast cancer in 2019. It wasn’t on my radar. I was at the doctor’s office for a different problem when the nurse practitioner said, “Do you know you have a lump on your right breast?” I could hardly register those words at all.

In fact, when she hande

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