Nervous about starting back to work and how I will make needed changes to both take care of myself physically and still be a leader at work.

Before Dec 2021, I was 38 years old and thought cancer was behind me. Now I feel as if my life span has shortened significantly, even if I survive over 5 years. I have an 8-year-old daughter and am married. My new hope in life is to see her turn 18. That's hard to stomach. I still want to thrive and lead at work when I return (so much anxiety around that) but realistically I won't have a long career.

My job is being very supportive of the time off I've taken for radiation & surgery but I need to be forming a solid plan for returning.

My lack of forming a solid plan for returning to work and how to go about it. I work for a start-up without an HR department.

Taking care of myself psychically & emotionally while balancing the rest of life: parenting, working, marriage, etc.

The psychologist at the cancer center

Yes. My life expectancy has shortened significantly given that I was just diagnosed with stage 4, metastatic breast cancer at age 38. Along with that career, hobby, parenting, marriage goals... they've all changed thought I don't know yet to what. It's overwhelming to think about.

I'm on leave from work right now but need to go back asap after recovering from surgery I had this week.

Pre-metastatic diagnosis (Dec 2021), I worked long hours, often hopping on calls into the night after putting my daughter to bed. My drive & new leadership roles seemed like a welcome new stage in my life given that I thought I was just past all of my (early stage/stage 2) cancer treatments. I was learning so much and quickly rising in my company. I want to keep learning, keep leading, keep doing great work but now I'm a metastatic breast cancer patient who needs to learn what work/life balance means to me.

I haven't as a metastatic patient.

I worked pretty well through treatment in earlier cancer stages: through chemo & radiation. Having a good routine at work and great co-workers helped. I need advice for working as a late-stage cancer patient as I'm not in a place to give advice regarding this.

I did get on ADHD medication to help me deal with the mental side effects of chemo and being put into pre-mature menopause at age 36. It helped so much.

Keep searching for resources like Cancer + Careers! Finding resources like this one is helping me stay hopeful that I may successfully ease back into work.