quote by bell hooks -

"We know from Buddhism that if we look for an end we will despair and not sustain our efforts.  But if we see it as a continual process of awakening, we can go forward."

- bell hooks

Perhaps that is why the end of cancer treatment is often a shock, as we are dropped into some anticipation of an ending, and, instead  find we must pick ourselves up from the water slide out of which we've been dropped, shake our heads to clear, and slowly begin to swim.