Breast Cancer Survivor Shares Poem

Helene Berlin was diagnosed with breast cancer more than seven years ago.

It's a diagnosis that many women face, and all have different methods of coping with the initial shock and subsequent experiences as they undergo treatment.

Berlin chose to express her feelings through poetry. The following poem, entitled "No Guarantees," was recently posted on the Living Beyond Breast Cancer website as October's "Healing Through Poetry" feature. Living Beyond Breast Cancer is a support and educational organization based in Pennsylvania.

No Guarantees

Danger may be waiting around the corner

I found it myself in the shower one morning

Suddenly, shocking me, no prior warning

Lump like a rock in me, silently forming

How in the hell could this happen to me

No family history, healthy fifty-three

Docs say mammo today, right away, don’t delay 

Luckily insurance will pay

Waiting in the changing room all alone

Scared to the bone, pink paper gown cold

Minute hand slows while image unfolds

Suspicious, irregular borders, I’m told

“Good luck,” the young radiologist said

Hope giving way to dismay and dread

Destiny suspended by a slender thread

Am I going to die?  How far has it spread?

Invasive, aggressive, found it in time

Was it chance or the hand of a Power Divine

I’m not religious but I’ll always believe

My doctors were angels sent to bless me

Treatment was harsh, slash-poison-and-burn

No guarantees disease won’t return

Modern medicine can’t answer for sure

Though I won the battle, will I lose the war?

Today friends tell me it’s finished, move on

But that’s more easily said than done

I’ll never stop looking over my shoulder --

Danger may be waiting, just around the corner.