"The Breast Cancer Forum was my lifeline!"

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Breast cancer is a serious topic. But that does not mean that women never laugh again after this diagnosis or know any other issues in life. In the breast cancer forum of the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde community therapies and side effects of medications are as much a topic as pets, prescriptions or book tips. And yes, it is also laughed here, such as when the environment is more overtaxed with the disease than you ("You look so different! Botox?" "No, Chemo."). Userin "annapaulemax" is one of three moderators of the forum, which can be as much survival aid as distraction for them.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: What's your personal story? Was the breast cancer diagnosis very sudden?

annapaulemax: In May 2009, I felt a small knot in the chest while applying cream. After the knot had not disappeared six weeks later, I went to see my gynecologist. That was sure, 'there's nothing', but has sent me to the ultrasound for safety's sake. Even the next doctor jokingly said that I was just a job creation measure. Until he glanced at the affected breast and immediately stated that it did not look so good. Within a week, I was dragged past seven different doctors, then I was in the hospital for surgery.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: How did you hear about the breast cancer forum in the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde community?

annapaulemax: The ChroniquesDuVasteMonde community had been my favorite forum for some time at the time of my diagnosis, and I was already there as a presenter. Even a few days before my diagnosis, I was looking for a moderator for the Thoracic Forum, and I was asked if I could imagine doing that. I had refused then. I thought a person affected would be better suited. Two weeks later, I wrote a message to the community team that I would be well qualified now.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Since when are you a presenter? How often do you look in the forum?

annapaulemax: I have been a presenter since 2009. And watch about every other day about the forum? sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little less, depending on what else is going on in my life.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: What's special about the forum for you?

annapaulemax: I have browsed a lot on the Internet after my diagnosis. What always irritated me was the most serious, tragic sound, according to the motto: "You have CANCER and you must never forgive the corners of the mouth again." We laugh in the forum as weeping, there is also space for medical discussions as well as for cooking recipes, discussions about children and jokes about the loved ones. There I felt as a woman with cancer and not as a cancer patient, who incidentally somehow was a woman. In the really bad moments, the forum was like a lifeline for me. I remember lying on my couch, curled up, using the laptop as a hot water bottle on my aching stomach and beaming myself off to a warm room where I've always found someone to talk, moan or even laugh and distract.

"Who looks to those who are a little bit more than sad?"

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Do you find it sad to be so often confronted with illness?

annapaulemax: I can only say: I feel many of the long-term users as friends. If I retreated, because one of them was ill again or worse, I would do exactly what I myself experienced as horrible: first of all define her as a cancer patient and then as a human being. Also for me a crucial point: If everyone looks away, because it could touch him sad? Who then looks to those who are a little bit more than sad? The victims, who fight with everything, what they have? Who then provides the bit of support and help that we can provide in this context?

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Why is the forum a help to ill women? annapaulemax:

For me, I can say clearly: The forum was a great help. What does big mean? Huge! Priceless. And for two reasons. First, quite pragmatic: information. The fact that women from all over Germany and sometimes also from abroad write there, one learns a lot about the different standards in the breast cancer treatment. Why some things are made and what alternatives there may be. It is so valuable when you suddenly get into a medical mill that you can ask what is happening - and if this and that makes any sense. Cancer is a multidisciplinary disease involving many medical trades. We affected in the forum know us partly through our exchange significantly better than some of the doctors involved.The second reason has to do with the scribes themselves: there are many great, strong women who understand what fears and worries you are concerned with, because they are or have been at the same point. But I think that it is more than just "those affected are particularly effective at helping people". These are also unique women whose acquaintance is an absolute asset to my life.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: What do you admire most about the women in the forum?

annapaulemax: the will to accept life in all its diversity. With joy, fear, worry, laughter and crying, with the big and the little things that make it colorful and unique. And their willingness to support and support each other.

Click here for the breast cancer forum.