Rediscovering My Sense of Faith Following a Colon Cancer Diagnosis

Carla Deschamps is now a survivor of colon cancer after receiving her diagnosis in February 2020. Read Carla's blogs here!

Faith. What does it mean to you? Well, faith, from my perspective, is believing in the unseen. When I first heard, “You have colon cancer,” I was in complete shock. I would have never thought in a million years that part of my journey in this world would include becoming a colon cancer survivor. Yet, I am beyond grateful for this life changingevent as it helped me grow in all areas of my life. Although nobody wants to go through this, I must say that it is howyou respond to life’s challenges that makes a huge difference. In this blog, I want to share my experiences on how faith transformed my journey with cancer.

Let's start from the beginning, when my oncologist informed me that I was in stage II colon cancer: I did not knowwhat life had in store for me, which was very scary to think about. However, I knew that this traumatic event had its purpose. Therefore, I decided to take this experience and make the best of it. This is when my faith in life and my spiritual journey started.

Affirmations was one of the techniques I utilized in order to cope with this experience. One of the affirmations that I recited frequently during that time was as follows: “Faith is what will keep me going.” I remembered repeating this affirmation over and over again out loud and. This affirmation brought me a feeling and a sense of inner peace. It was an emotion that I genuinely needed, especially when I began chemotherapy. Even though I did not know what to expect in my future, believing that everything was going to work out at the end was, ultimately, what helped me keep fighting for my life.

Moreover, an area where faith played a significant role was my health, which consisted in being physically fit. In February 2020, I weighed 103 lbs, the skinniest I have ever been. I must be honest and express that I hated theway I looked. I did not like how skinny I was. I never understood why I was eating normal portions of meals and always had difficulty gaining weight.

Looking back now, I have come to the conclusion that the mass in my colon was not allowing me to gain the weight that I wanted. For this reason, I began to have hope that with time, I was going to improve my physicalappearance for the better. As months passed, I was able to gain weight and eventually weighed 116 lbs. I was definitely in the best physical shape of my life due to exercising regularly and establishing a healthy, balanced diet.

In conclusion, faith was an important tool that helped me endure my journey towards being cancer free. It allowed me to keep moving forward even when I had moments I wanted to give up. Yet, my conviction and loyalty towards my recovery assisted me to evolve in all areas of my life including my emotional, mental and physical well-being. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once stated, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” My faith, without a doubt, encouraged me to become a cancer survivor and I am beyond blessed and grateful because of it. Thankyou, God for my blessings and my second chance in life.