What to expect when you’re newly diagnosed!

Hello family & friends!  Here is a little "what to expect" post - a little insight from a newbie.  I'm sure this applies to any diagnosis - not just cancer.  This can be for you or for a family/friend that was diagnosed with whatever "IT" may be.     

• Nausea:  This one may just be me, although I doubt it.  Holy shit was I feeling completely ill.  I got the “hey, you have cancer” call while I was at work.  After I sobbingly relayed the info over to the hubs, I headed to the bathroom stall, where I had to stand for a bit because I thought I was going to lose my lunch.  I not only did this once, but three times that day.  I stayed nauseous for the rest of the day and little into the next.  It gets better, I promise.  I also became nauseous the day that I received the pathology report, after researching what it said of course.   Again, the bathroom stall became my buddy.
• Eating Habits:  You may be an emotional eater or an emotional starver.  I happen to be the latter.  I haven’t been eating quite as much since the diagnosis.  Let’s say I am super hungry, but then once I dig in, about half-way through, I am done.  My brain thinks that the hunger level is still there - but my stomach doesn't. 
•  Freak out!  Le Freak, C’est Chic!:  I don’t care how stoic you think you may be, you WILL be in freak out mode at one point or another.  Your freak out mode may last an hour, a day, a week, a month – only you can decide when that will end.  Just be prepared that it can absolutely sneak up on you when you’re least expecting it.  It could be a song you hear or even one of those freaking Sarah McLachlan sad puppy commercials (I can’t change the channel fast enough!).
• Sleepless Nights:  The way that I handle this is to try to relax before bed.  I know, I know – easier said than done.  I already have a dash of insomnia (thanks, Mom!) and stress turns that into a colossal glob of insomnia.  What I do is make sure I am showered, try to drink some ‘Sleepytime Tea’, take some melatonin and possibly half of a non-addictive sleeping pill, throw my pasty butt in bed and try to do some reading; yes, in that order.  I’ve tried muscle relaxers, three different kinds to be exact, and all it does is make me an uber-relaxed annoyed person with random thoughts racing through her head.  There may be a test run of what concoctions work best for you.  Whatever works - stick with it!
• Emotions:  There will be a torrential flood of emotions that will come to the surface.  Me – I’m a crier.  I cry all the damn time, especially when I am about a week away from starting my lovely period.  This makes it worse, MUCH worse.  Oh jeez, my poor husband!  Honey cakes, I’m sorry and you know that I love you, right?  It’s just the hormones, I promise!  I don’t even want to think about …..(drum roll please)….The Change!  With my hormones, I may just go on a three-state kill spree.  Wait, how the hell did I get from crying to menopause?  Anyways, you’ll be a little on the emotional side.  More on this later.  
• New Friends:  O-kay, they may not technically be “new” friends, they may be old ones that you never, ever physically speak to.  I weeded through my Facebook friends list and got rid of about 50 people before 'coming out'.  And I'm still deleting people *cue 'Jaws' theme*. 
• Knowledge:  To me this is one of the best outcomes of any diagnosis.  Knowledge.  I've researched my pasty butt off.  I'm sure if there was a way to disable Google on my computer at work, my boss would have done it.  Just because she thought that I was freaking myself out, but I wasn't...well....I wasn't freaking myself out TOO bad.  I need information, o-kay!  Knowledge is Power and don't forget it.

And there it is.  You (or your family/friend) may have all of these or not - there may be even MORE things.  This is just what I went through (and still am going through).  Diagnosis can be scary - I think it means "Fear of the devil's goat eyes" in Latin.  Just kidding, that is completely false.  But I had you going, right?  :)