Yang Seon-ah “A story I want to share with cancer patients”

December 2019, Sunah Yang The reporter was diagnosed with breast cancer. SNS self-introduction “Passion and positivity are the motto of life”He, who used to write, has always been positive about life to the point of being called an ‘energizer’. Since he was in his late thirties, he had been doing mammography as well as ultrasound scans, so being diagnosed with breast cancer in his mid-40s was shocking. On the day I was diagnosed with cancer, the doctor said that I urgently needed to schedule the surgery. Reporter Yang Seon-ah sought advice from his fellow medical journalist and headed straight to the bookstore. Written by Dr. Mancheong Han “Don’t fight cancer, let’s be friends”starting with 『Treatment Guide for Breast Cancer Patients』He found and read ‘chemo-surgery-radiation’, which is called the three standard treatments, and is currently recovering.

“I thought it was over, but life went on”is a reporter Yang Seon-ah This book is a compilation of the ‘Sunah Yang’s Cancer & Knowledge Series’ serialized in the Saturday edition. Worked as a reporter for over 20 years at Webzine Reporter Yang Seon-ah, who also planned and operated the program, is on a ‘desire diet’ after being diagnosed with cancer. Living as a mother of two and dreaming of “ becoming a grandmother who can fully recover from cancer and enjoy life,” she met reporter Yang Seon-ah in her writings.

Self-examination methods to detect breast cancer

『Mother’s Emotional Study for My Child』 After that, you wrote your second solo book. It must not have been easy for him to write while fighting the disease. A reporter who goes to workWhat was your experience of writing as a person battling a disease?

At the beginning of my cancer diagnosis, I opened the category ‘Breast cancer is a part of my life’ and started writing on my blog, and the team leader Saturdayopan and other members came to visit me and asked me to publish an article in the newspaper. But at the time, I couldn’t even dare to meet the deadline while I was doing cancer. The treatment itself was difficult, but I was afraid that I would be able to finish the newspaper article.

One day after completing chemo-surgery-radiation treatment, a proposal came to me to rewrite the series while reorganizing the Saturday edition. Throughout the course of treatment, things I didn’t expect happened, and I learned a lot of wisdom in life through those events. As I looked back on the past year, I thought it would be meaningful to organize the battlefield process, and I also thought that if there was anything I could do, I would like to do it for people like me who were diagnosed with cancer and despaired, saying, “My life is over.” That’s how I started serializing it, and I ended up publishing a book by tying the articles together. As a result, it was such a fun and meaningful experience for me.

Journalists do their research and write articles based on what they have covered. Objective truth or facts are more important than my personal feelings or feelings. However, objective facts were also included in the battle period, but a lot of my emotions and feelings were also included. It also contains what I realized while going through a disease called ‘cancer’. After the serialization went out, so many people’s support and feedback poured in, and Naver comments were also ‘sunple’, so it was just amazing. I was able to feel the power of being published in a newspaper in reality.

It was fine when I had a regular checkup a year ago, and it was discovered while I was getting a massage. Breast cancer occurs more often in women in their 40s. Is there any way to detect breast cancer early other than a yearly health checkup?

It is important to have regular checkups such as breast ultrasound, but it is also important to look closely at your own body and not your own breasts. I have small breasts, so I thought it would be far from breast cancer. However, there was no relationship between breast size and breast cancer.

There are self-examination methods that can detect breast cancer. It is said that the breasts are softest within the first week after menstruation every month. During that time, it is important to observe the breast with your own eyes and hands.

First, you have to stand in front of a mirror to see if there is any change in the shape of the breasts on both sides. If there are dents or convexities in the breast, or wrinkles on the skin, it is recommended to go to the nearest breast surgeon for a detailed examination.

Second, there is a way to promote it in a standing or sitting position, or in a comfortable lying position. To palpate, raise one arm and use the wide surface of the index, middle, and ring fingers of the opposite finger to palpate while drawing a circle. It is to check the back for any lumps on the chest. If there is secretion by squeezing the nipple slightly, it should be regarded as a signal for a detailed examination.

The first place I went after being diagnosed with breast cancer was a bookstore. The hospital was recommended by a fellow medical journalist. What do you think was the best thing you did in the early days of your diagnosis, and what regretted not knowing more?

The day I found out I was diagnosed with cancer, I couldn’t sit still at home, so I rushed to the bookstore near my house. It’s the best thing I did early on when I was diagnosed. The moment you learn that you have cancer, various scenarios unfold in your head. As the main character of a drama with a death sentence, you assume the worst. You tremble with fear, and you feel completely alone and isolated. I can’t objectively see the reality I’m in as it is. However, in such a situation, I came across books that wrote the know-how that people who had battled the disease before me had accumulated through trial and error, as well as books that gave objective facts and knowledge about diseases. Without those books, I would have suffocated in fear and would not have been able to properly go through the fight against the disease. I think, then, and still, the best thing I’ve done is to try to get to know and learn from other people’s knowledge and wisdom through books.

It is regret rather than regret. There are insurances that have been canceled in the year just before the cancer diagnosis because the insurance cost is high. It’s a pity that something like this happened after canceling the insurance. If you are diagnosed with cancer, you receive severe benefits and pay only 5% of the cost of treatment, but it costs a lot of money to receive treatment for the aftereffects of cancer and to buy proper food. Readers should also take care of their actual expenses insurance, cancer insurance, etc. on a daily basis.

The Korean-style sickness and sickness allowance pilot project, which provides income protection by paying about 60% of the minimum wage to workers when they cannot work due to illness or injury, will be implemented from July this year. I hope this sickness and sickness allowance system will be established soon.

regular exercise, adequate sleep, and sun exposure

I heard you received a lot of e-mails from your newspaper column serialization. I know that opening up one’s own disease actually helps fight the disease. How about the reporter?

It really helped a lot. Medical sociologist Arthur Frank 『Living with a sick body』“It is society, not disease, that makes cancer a dreadful disease,” says the book. They say that there is a special fear of cancer in a culture that is reluctant to even name the disease. In this culture, if you want cancer patients to feel stigmatized, they tell you to stop hiding and appear in front of others and testify of your experiences.

If I had hidden the fact that I was diagnosed with cancer, I wouldn’t have been able to say that I was having a hard time even though I was having a hard time, and I wouldn’t have been able to say that I was in pain even though I was sick. How hard is it to pretend to be okay when you’re not okay? I didn’t have to do that, so I think it helped a lot. After revealing the disease, I was able to provide information on how those who have overcome breast cancer should fight the disease, and to share experiences with patients with the same disease. In addition, I was able to receive support and consideration from my acquaintances, which was a great help in fighting the disease.

The letters and donations from the staff must have been really impressive. And in the book, many seniors and juniors acquaintances appear. What was the most comforting thing you heard from them when you were sick?

“People who learn from pain have a different kind of hardness from ordinary people because pain makes them focus more on the essence of life and focus on the topics of why and how to live.” It’s in my mind. The days before cancer treatment, hospital treatment, and the day before surgery are the loneliest and most difficult, but he is a senior who has been with me every time. This senior is obsessed with happiness 『To you who ask for happiness』Ari Kim is the author of the book (All About Happiness). As a senior who focused on the subject of pain and happiness, I think he read the meaning of it properly and shared it with me as I went through the tunnel of pain. I still have a grateful heart for Ari-senpai.

As a patient, is there anything you would like to say to the families living with cancer patients?

I would like to urge you to take good care of your physical and mental health, as families of cancer patients have no choice but to go through very difficult times as much as cancer patients. The mental state of the family cannot help but directly or indirectly affect the mental state of the patient. However, if the family is under extreme stress and physically exhausted, they cannot provide adequate care for the patient. Fighting cancer is a very long, long marathon-like journey. So, I want to ask you to take good care of your body and mind so that you don’t get tired.

And what I would like to ask my family is that the cancer treatment process is a series of endless choices. There are so many things to decide whether to go for chemotherapy or not, what to do with surgery, whether to do reconstructive surgery or not. Also, when you say you have cancer, there is a lot of information pouring out around you, such as this is good for cancer. The fact that the patient has cancer is difficult by itself, but you have to hide the gem among a lot of information and choose something. In such a case, if the family finds information together, it is a great help to the patient. In addition, in the course of chemotherapy, you will inevitably experience various side effects, so it would be good to be aware of the side effects in advance and provide the necessary help at that time.

What efforts are needed to prevent breast cancer?

Preventing breast cancer is the same as preventing all cancers. Cancer occurs when cells in your body turn into mutant cells and multiply at will by certain factors. Therefore, it is important not to do bad things to the body first. Avoid excessive drinking and smoking, and avoid processed foods and burnt foods that can cause cancer. Don’t do bad things for your body, but do more good things. A vegetarian diet and plenty of water can also help. Vegetables prevent DNA damage and prevent mutant cells from developing. Drinking an appropriate amount of water will improve blood circulation and activate cells.

Second, regular exercise helps. Exercise is truly a surplus business. Exercising at least three times a week that makes you slightly short of breath and sweat can keep you healthy. If you mix aerobic exercise and strength training evenly, it will be an added bonus. From blood circulation to stress relief to cancer prevention, nothing is as good as exercise to prevent cancer. This is a fact that has already been proven by many papers.

Third, getting plenty of sunlight and getting enough sleep is also important. When exposed to sunlight, vitamin D is synthesized in the body through the skin. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to various cancers. After I was diagnosed with cancer, I did a blood test and found that my vitamin D level was remarkably low. Be sure to check your vitamin D level and get at least 15 minutes of sunlight a day.

Before the cancer diagnosis, I had a lot of things I wanted to do and too little time, so I cut back on sleep. I woke up at 3 or 4 in the morning to read a book I wanted to read or to enjoy my alone time. But because I can’t get a good night’s sleep and I don’t have enough time to sleep, I wonder if my immune system is weakened and I have cancer. It is important to get enough sleep to allow your body to recover and relax.

Are you still writing blogs? You recently wrote a letter to me two years later. Please tell me about your heart for writing this letter.

I was diagnosed with cancer in December 2019, and two years later, I will be completely cured. I recently wrote a letter to myself, who will be judged to be completely cured. Shortly after being diagnosed with cancer, I received a letter from a 32-year-old me to a 42-year-old me. I wrote a letter to myself 10 years later as a time capsule project at the company, and then I participated. I got the letter by chance, and you don’t know how much power the 32-year-old Sun-ah Yang said to 42-year-old Yang Seon-ah. I read the letter with tears in my eyes.

I wrote a letter in advance to Yang Seon-ah, who would be cured of that experience, and blessed and congratulated her. And she thought about how she was going to live for the next two years, and by the time she was diagnosed with a cure, she wrote down something she’ll never forget. After going to the threshold of death and returning to a normal life again, I was grateful for just eating well, sleeping well, and packing well.

Humans are creatures of oblivion. At some point, I forgot the things I thought were important, and twenty-two complaints and complaints come up and I start to compare myself with others. I wrote this letter to make sure I don’t forget the really important and precious things in life.

Develop your ability to depend

How is your condition these days? Is the reinstatement date set?

I decided to return to work at the end of February next year. Our company can take sick leave for 3 years, but I was thinking about returning to the second year after the restoration surgery, but I decided to take a 3 year break and return. The liver level is not yet stable, and a nodule was recently found on a thyroid ultrasonography, and a follow-up examination is required. After all, when I return to work, I will not be as strict about diet, sleep, and stress management as I am now, so I decided that it would be better to recover and come back one by one.

Conditions are very good these days. We walk a lot and laugh a lot. After the book was published, acquaintances I hadn’t seen before contacted me to meet them, and I’m seeing a lot of them. After meeting people for 5 days in a row, my dark circles went down to my feet and my mouth was swollen. I could see that I did not recover as much as I had before the cancer diagnosis. I plan to work harder to build up my stamina for the rest of the time.

What would you most like to do when you return to work?

Now & Here. What I’ve learned while going through cancer is to cherish the now and here and live. Currently, I am a member of the social policy team. I don’t know what the situation of the assessment team will be at that time, or the situation of the editorial office as a whole. So I’m not thinking about what I’m going to do when I return to work. I want to work within the range that I can choose according to the situation at that time and according to my physical condition at that time. In the past, I used to think that life should go the way I planned it. Life never goes the way I planned. I’m thinking of leaving it to you like surfing with the flow of the waves, and I’m thinking of focusing on here and now to build up your stamina and make your body and mind healthier.

What if you could give realistic tips and consolation stories to cancer patients rather than abstract support?

First, develop the ability to depend. Don’t try to get through that difficult time alone just thinking that I’m strong, I’m not weak, and I can bear it well. In a recent article, I used the expression that cancer is like a car accident. Just as you get appropriate treatment and help from those around you after a car accident, so is cancer treatment. We wish you the best of luck through this difficult time by properly relying on those around you and asking for help. I wish there were more people to open my heart to and help, but in fact, a human can stand up with just one person. Maybe cancer can help me discover who is really important to me. So, find someone I can depend on, even if it’s just one person.

Second, I want to say that if I want to depend but I can’t find anyone I can depend on, then I have to be my biggest supporter. Cancer treatment is a long-term battle. Just because chemo-surgery-radiation is over doesn’t mean you’ll be fine. There are various sequelae, a recovery process is required, and efforts must be made to prevent recurrence and metastasis. In that long process, I am the one who cheers for me till the end. Even my family and friends will at some point forget that I am a cancer patient. The person who will look after my body and mind to the end is myself. Trust me and be kind to me. It’s hard to be sick, but don’t judge me, criticize me, and compare me to others. Also, I think it would be good for me to take the lead and study cancer while working on cancer treatment and cancer prevention.

Third, this period of battling cancer is also our life. I hope I will be completely conquered by cancer and not fill my life with cancer thoughts. If you have cancer but can walk in the sun, you can walk, sit in the shade of a tree and drink a glass of cool water. You can make eye contact with your family and talk politely, or even talk on the phone with your friends. I hope you don’t waste your precious life thinking about cancer. I hope you don’t forget the right to fully enjoy life in the ‘here and now’ by distinguishing between what I can and cannot do, and focus on what I want to do, where I want to go, and the people I want to meet.

Please introduce three books that you would like to recommend to patients.

『Living with a sick body』 – This is a book that changed the perspective of people who will lose a lot from cancer, but also gain a lot from cancer. As a medical sociologist, this book tells how diseases are handled in society and how to accept them as they are.

“Some death said to life” – This is an essay by Professor Kim Beom-seok, an oncologist at Seoul National University Hospital, who mainly treats stage 4 patients. It deals with the attitudes of various people who are about to die, and each individual life is like a drama. This book is a good way to ask questions about life and death.

『Walker, Ha Jung-woo』 – This book made me fall in love with the charm of walking. No other article has written about the allure and benefits of walking so glamorously. I put it on my bookshelf, and when I’m too lazy to exercise, I open the book and look at it again. This will give you a boost of motivation to walk again.

*Seon-ah Yang After studying sociology and journalism at Ewha Womans University, she worked as a reporter for the Hankyoreh newspaper for over 20 years, continuously covering various fields. She also has experience in planning and operating the pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting webzine ‘Baby Tree’ for 7 years. She received the ‘Media Impression of the Year’ in 2018 and 2019 for her contribution to the improvement of children’s human rights and the establishment of public education in the civic group ‘Politics Mothers’. She was on sick leave in December 2019 after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is on a ‘desire diet’ after being diagnosed with cancer. I am satisfied if I can eat well, sleep well, and walk well. It is her dream to become a grandmother who can fully recover from cancer and enjoy life, and she wants to make many good memories with her two children, Minji and Mingyu. Based on her interest in people’s hearts, she wrote 『Self-Esteem is My Power』, and she co-published 『I Am a Working Mom』 and 『Thank You for Being My Child』.

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