«The time we have as a family is so valuable»
A small world collapsed for us when we were diagnosed with breast cancer. You think: wait a minute, I'm pregnant, I'm not allowed to eat salami and mozzarella and then I'm supposed to have chemotherapy! It was inconceivable to us that this would not harm our child.
The worst thing was to see the bewilderment, sadness and despair in the eyes of our family members and friends. In the end, it was often us who had to reassure and rebuild the others.
When you are confronted so closely with death, every single day is a gift.
Family Bauer
After six cycles of chemotherapy, our Emily was born. It was a miracle for us that she was healthy! Four days after the birth, we had breast surgery, followed by radiotherapy and antibody therapy and a long period of exhaustion.
The fact that recovery takes so much time is often not understood by outsiders. As soon as your hair grows back, you are healthy again for society. The illness has taught us to stand up and say: Stop, we need help! Stop, this is our limit! That wasn't easy for us.
We enjoy every day much more since then. When you are confronted so closely with death, every single day is a gift. You become more grateful for what you have, more content. There was such a sense of happiness deep inside that we only felt afterwards.
After such a time, you also become much more relaxed about some things, you no longer take such a narrow view of many things in everyday life and think: Oh come on, that's not so important after all. What really matters in life? We are certainly also more mindful of ourselves: what do we need as a family, as a couple?
At the same time, the illness also took the lightness away from us. The carefree feeling never quite returned. It's a loss, a sadness that you have to accept at some point. But we overcame the grief well. Above all, our daughter Emily helped us get back into everyday life. Children have the wonderful gift of living in the here and now, something that many have forgotten.
