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Mental Health and Mindfulness

Cancer affects the mind as much as the body.

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Is crying and feeling hopeless after melanoma surgery normal?

GR

Community Member

a day ago

Hi everyone. I don’t even know where to begin here. I read through these posts and feel silly even posting. I recently underwent surgery for melanoma on my scalp, something called a large excision, and also had a couple lymph nodes removed from my neck. Throughout the process of every scan under the sun, they also found a mass on my brain that we are continuing to monitor (most likely just a meningioma). I feel I handled it pretty well mentally, until I returned to work post surgery and was let go from a job I dearly loved. I pretty much saw that coming as my boss’ adoration and praises of my performance instantly vanished the moment I told her I’d be out for at least a week for recovery. I made the decision I needed a fresh start, and decided to move across Country to be near my family. Sounds like a good plan, right? Well, there’s a reason one should never make important decisions while on meds. I don’t have the kind of parents who are nurturing by anyone’s standards, but I’ve learned to let it bounce off over the decades. Since moving, I now find myself crying and wishing I had never bothered with treating the cancer, and just wish I had died. This is NOT me! The normal me would just regret telling my family about the cancer, which I do, but what the heck is happening to make me cry so much and not want to live? I never shed a tear throughout the whole process, my team of docs both commented on how great I was handling everything. Is this at all a normal part of the process? I’m sorry, I know my ordeal is so minuscule compared to everyone on here, but I’m becoming concerned. I just want to know if this is at all normal?

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