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Mindset Makes A Difference

Why some people survive and others do not

Shefali O'Hara
3 min readJan 7, 2024
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

I was first diagnosed with cancer 20 years ago. I was given 6 months to live by my doctors. This was because I had inflammatory breast disease. At the time of my diagnosis, 85% of those with this condition were dead within 18 months. The 5 year surival rates were abysmal.

Yet here I am.

Yes, in that time frame I have had two more cancer recurrences.

The first was about 6 years ago, when I had a ductal carcinoma and got a mastectomy. More recently, about 2 1/2 years ago, I was diagnosed with metastatic brain cancer.

The ductal carcinoma was the size of a large orange and the oncologist who first looked at it told me I would not live long even after surgically removing it. The surgeon who removed my brain tumor told me I would live at most 6 months and that the last couple of months I’d be in hospice.

Well, I’m still alive and I have not had to have hospice care. I have had some truly scary ER visits and other setbacks, and I am physically weaker, but I am still enjoying my life.

I don’t sit around and cry in my coffee.

When I was in college, I was at MIT, and apparently some of the guys on my floor didn’t like how cheerful I was. MIT was supposed to be…

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Shefali O'Hara
Shefali O'Hara

Written by Shefali O'Hara

Cancer survivor, Christian, writer, engineer. BSEE from MIT, MSEE, and MA in history. Love nature, animals, books, art, and interesting discussions.

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