Amen, Cindy! Nothing else I can add. Merry Christmas!

That's how I spent Thanksgiving Day 2008 (2 days post surgery). I agree with Dan, you say it so well. Thanks for sharing your story. Hugs to everyone. Brenda

Happy Holidays to everyone. The fact we are still here gives us much to be grateful for. The last 4.5 years have been rough at times...but like everything else there has been a silver lining....getting to know and share with a group of fine and strong people...best always....ML.

Merry Christmas!
And, it's indeed a happy one for me. Stan is up and about. He can walk again, and even do a few things at home. And, he can drive again. It takes being in the depth of despair to appreciate the little things in life. I'm so happy to have another Christmas with my husband. And, I know all of you who have gone through this disease yourself, or with someone you love, that you are feeling blessed to celebrate the holidays. I wish all who come to this site a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas to you also, Cindy. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and stating so well what many of us feel. I hope that everyone is feeling well enough to enjoy Christmas with their family.

I am incredibly blessed to be here. My first research on being Stage 3 was that I had a 15% chance of living - I've now worked up my way to 50% (I guess you get credits the longer you live). I have two friends and one neighbor who have terminal cancer right now. This makes me feel even luckier. I frankly don't know or understand why some of us make it and others do not. Sometimes I tend to think that each of is "stamped" at birth with an expiration date - only altered by life style choice. Someone who abuses alcohol or tobacco definitely impacts his/her expiration date. Or a fatal accident. Other than these life-ending events, perhaps the rest of us simply have fate for or against us?

Since the very beginning of this cancer journey, I haven't once felt like I really had this disease. Never for a moment. Chemo/radiation/massive surgery and all; I never felt like I really had cancer. All it was was a bright spot on a PET scan. That wasn't real to me. All the treatments, most especially the surgery didn't even make me feel like I had a serious cancer. To this day, I don't embrace this reality. I'd like to know how the rest of you felt when you got this diagnosis or treatment - was I a freak? All of my life, I thought the worst possible thing which could happen was to be told that I had cancer - but, when it happened, it was never real to me.

I know what you mean, Dancing, about this cancer not seeming quite real.
My brother was diagnosed at Stage 4 last summer--almost six months ago--and I still have to pinch myself to make sure that this whole thing isn't just a nightmare. I never ever expected anyone in my immediate family to develop cancer--heart disease has always been the family bugaboo.
And despite being riddled with tumors Brother seems so fit--every time I go to visit him he's doing calisthenics, running the dog, mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges etc. Despite sixteen chemo treatments he seems to have more stamina than all the rest of us put together--his regular walking pace leaves us trailing behind, puffing and panting.

After doing battle with EC, I've come to realize that we're so sick and physically-compromised that this consumes most of our daily life, BUT, those who love and care for us may be the ones who suffer the most in other ways. Researching endlessly, journaling prolifically, and under going treatments plus surgery were quite distracting for me, but our loved ones are seeing all of this from the "outside", only imagining what it's like for us.

A close friend spent Xmas sitting in a wheelchair in a rehab center due to her brain cancer surgery leaving her left side non-functional. My neighbor, whose EC surgery revealed inoperable EC cancer on her trachea continues to live her life as though this isn't happening.

I'm not sure why some of us do so well and others do not, but as this new year arrives and I'm nearly 4 years "out" NED, I feel blessed for every single day.