HOPE

WOW!
Thanks for sharing that with us, I'm so glad about your hubby!!! he will do just fine!

It's so awesome to hear about these people having it for almost 20 years, you can bet I will keep fighting and trying to enjoy myself more and more now with my kids, I do feel so much better laughing now, I been having bouts of crying spells, because of the setback last week, but getting better and just now having some fun, keeping my mind off it!

I loved that story! thanks for that! my prayers are with you and your hubby!

Hugsss!
~Donna

Thank you, Gail!
The timing is perfect... I really needed to hear a long term survival story this morning. I realize 2 years, and 5 years and 7 years are all great survival stories and yes, I love hearing from those who are having those anniversaries. But it's the LONGER term futures I need to hear when I'm going through an anxious phase.

Which is what I'm going through right now It's that time of the year where my Disability Insurance needs the reports/updates from the doctors to justify me remaining on LTD. I realize it's just an "insurance" thing, but still... it's an eye opener. I went to my GP yesterday to have him fill out the short form (what is his opinion of whether I should/could go back to work full time) and then all the reports from various scans, tests, radiologists, oncologist, etc. to back that up.

I have these reports with me now and am just waiting for another one or two before I send them in (I have until the end of April to get them in). Well, it always throws me into anxiety when I actually read these reports. The strange thing is... I have been at all the tests, appts, procedures, scans, etc. that the reports are based on... yet reading in writing what the doctors' impressions/opinions are can throw me into a funk.

For instance:

"Cheryl understands the treatment plan and the overall likely non-curative nature of her disease progress. She further understands that her disease has been very slowly progressing over the last year and it may behave in an indolent fashion for some period of time before necessitating intervention with chemotherapy."

Now, all of this I know. My understanding of the treatment plan is that we are keeping an eye on these small nodules on the lungs and if one or two of them were to grow, then we would re-visit lung ablation. But if they all (6 of them) were to start growing, or more were to show up, then we would take the chemotherapy route.

But seeing it in writing... certain words stick out -- "non-curative", "disease progress". Amazing how some words are like throwing cold water in your face.

So, to hear that someone is 16 years with us after DX, especially considering they did not have the chemos and treatments 16 years ago that we have today... this is wonderful balm to the anxiety level.

As those of you who know me, know... I'm not into the prayer/faith. For that to work, you have to believe in the teachings of traditional religions which, sorry if I offend anyone, but it's not my cup of tea. And no none of you need to try to make me see the light... you either have a religion and believe or you don't. And one thing I can't tolerate is a hypocrit ... someone who doesn't believe but then if they figure they can get some mileage out of it, will turn around and say they no believe, when they know deep down they don't That would be me if I were to say, "Ok, if this will give me a chance of living longer, then I believe!" Now, that's not to say I'm not spiritual... I feel I am very spiritual and I have incredibly strong beliefs in how we fit in to this whole wonderful universe... some of it is pretty exciting stuff. But that is not to say I'm not human and I have my fears, doubts, anxiety that everyone else gets.

But if one or ten or hundreds of people can be told by their doctors that the prognosis is not good, but we will do what we can to give you a few more years of good quality life... and those same patients say, "Screw that! I'm not finished living my life on this planet yet and I'm going to be around for another 20, 30 or 40 years" and BELIEVE it... then are around to PROVE it, those are the stories that make my heart soar I feel that are a lot of them out there that can say that... but, because they are now out there living their lives and putting their journey behind them, it hasn't dawned on them to hunt down these online support groups and tell their story. Prior to me finding this support board, it never dawned on me to look up any support group of which maybe something I have gone through may be just what someone else needs to hear.

So thank you, thank you for sharing this story. I really needed it this morning

Hugggggs,

Cheryl