{"id":14845,"date":"2026-01-28T23:54:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wellspring.ca\/alberta\/?p=14845"},"modified":"2026-01-29T23:38:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:38:02","slug":"jennifers-story-learning-to-let-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellspring.ca\/alberta\/blog\/2026\/01\/28\/jennifers-story-learning-to-let-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer’s Story: Learning to Let Go"},"content":{"rendered":"
At 42, Jennifer Herbert McCreary held herself to a high standard, and would offer the world nothing less. In her work as a respiratory therapist, she gave 110 percent. To her husband, her sisters, parents, friends, she gave 110 percent. But in the spring of 2022, when cancer blindsided her, all the will, discipline, and devotion she possessed, could not keep Jennifer from catapulting off her path.<\/p>\n
\u201cCancer stopped me dead in my tracks – like slamming into a wall,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cI had always perceived myself as being independent and in control. This sudden lack of control terrified me. I thought \u201cI can\u2019t do this. I don\u2019t want to do this. Why am I having to go through this?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At first, she was consumed with anger and disbelief. There was no history of breast cancer in her family. She had always made good choices, followed the rules, maintained a healthy active lifestyle. In her meticulously planned, well organized world, cancer had no business showing up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked my wonderful oncologist, Dr Webster, how this could happen? He told me sometimes it\u2019s just random. But I didn\u2019t like that answer. I wanted to calculate and figure out the formula so this would never happen to me again. I wanted to understand it, fix it, and get on with things. Logically I knew this wasn\u2019t possible, but I had always measured my successes by productivity. If things were going to get done in my life, it was because of me \u2013 I would do what it takes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In the days that followed, painstaking enlightenment began to unfold.<\/p>\n
Unexpected Gift<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Before starting treatment, Jennifer\u2019s mom picked her up for a special outing \u2013 a drive to the family\u2019s favourite spots in southern Alberta for some forest and mountain therapy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about the opportunity a cancer diagnosis could bring me \u2026 this shift in perception … an evolution that I knew was almost inevitable. In a way, I was looking forward to what cancer was offering me. I wanted to be open \u2013 to be willing to see what this experience was trying to teach me, or show me, or help me move towards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As they talked and drove slowly through an empty campground, Jennifer spotted something that nearly made her bolt out of the moving car. It was a giant morel mushroom rising up from the forest floor.<\/p>\n
For years, Jennifer\u2019s family had enjoyed the annual tradition of foraging for mushrooms, setting out together on a spring day to hunt for delicate tasty morels. But this was the offseason, and seeing one this size from the car was unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was huge and blond in colour, like a golden ray of light. It felt like a beacon of hope telling me to trust, stay open, believe in my body. I drew so much strength from this gift; it just lifted me up. I felt connected to nature, grounded, reassured that I was going to get through this,\u201d said Jennifer.<\/p>\n
Chemotherapy<\/strong><\/h4>\n
When Jennifer\u2019s biopsy showed Stage 1b \u2013 HER-2 positive breast cancer, the recommended course of treatment was 12 rounds of chemotherapy followed by surgery. The decision to do chemotherapy did not come easily for Jennifer. It terrified her. But when she and her husband Dustin weighed the odds and chances for a cure, she felt chemotherapy gave her the best odds, and decided to go that route.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was nothing easy about chemo. Emotionally, physically, it drains everything you have and even goes a little further. I was only able to manage day to day, often hour by hour,\u201d she said. \u201cBut throughout it all, even when the days were the darkest, I was surrounded by so much love. So many wonderful people lifted me up and carried me through. My husband, my sisters, and my best friend all rotated through taking me to chemo, which I was just so grateful for.<\/p>\n
In October of 2022, Jennifer went for her final chemotherapy session and was overjoyed to ring the bell, indicating this part of her journey was over. Then the family celebrated Thanksgiving with an \u201cEnd of Chemo Party,\u201d with all guests in attendance requested to wear wigs in solidarity with Jennifer.<\/p>\n
Next hurdle … surgery.<\/p>\n
Surgery<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Once again presented treatment options, Jennifer chose to have a mastectomy.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing my breast was so hard. Growing up I had been critical of my body and self-image, but what I once saw as imperfect, now I didn\u2019t want to lose. It\u2019s part of who I am. You want your body to be your own and whole,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Taking the bandages off at home after her mastectomy was a deeply difficult and moving experience that Jennifer shared with both her sisters and then Dustin. She describes this as one of the most vulnerable moments of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a deeply saddening experience to remove those bandages. Both my sisters wept with me for my loss and offered me so much strength and support. And my husband was so tender and reassuring that my beauty was so much more than skin deep,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Good News!<\/strong><\/h4>\n
In November came the good news! Clear margins, cancer had not spread, lymph nodes were clear, no malignancy. The relief was beyond immense! Let the journey to wellness begin \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a few months after surgery, and even though I was told that cancer is gone, I can celebrate and start to live again, I didn\u2019t feel okay. I wondered why I wasn\u2019t more excited and relieved. Is this just me? Is there something wrong with me? Things were not congruent. My emotions and feelings did not match the new reality that I could start living again. That\u2019s when I realized that, as much as my personal support system was amazing, there was something missing. My husband and I talked openly about it, and that\u2019s when I decided to look into Wellspring.<\/p>\n
So, I went online, joined Wellspring, and I was overwhelmed! All of this available to me at no cost? It felt like someone opened this beautiful box and set it in front of me and said, anything you need is here for you and it\u2019s going to nourish you. I didn\u2019t know what I was looking for, but I really wanted this way back to living.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n![\"Jenn](\"https:\/\/wellspring.ca\/alberta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2026\/01\/Jenn-with-husband-and-mom-225x300.jpg\" "\\"Jennifer")
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