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You find that real enjoyment is largely a thing of the past as no matter what you do ultimately you know which way every path is leading.  All you old memories and experiences are tainted - especially the happy ones.  What is more there is an expectation that you will still try to be happy jovial and joyful  - careful not to bring others around you down.  I guess it is human nature - someone recently told my wife that nobody likes a sad puss.  The old proverb laugh and the world laughs with you and cry and you cry alone.

Even here I feel the need to apologise for what I know is a very negative blog.  I don't expect it to get many readers as it is not what people want.  Well there you go.  In all my daily life I have to present a happy face.  There has to be some outlet somewhere that you can say what you really feel.  At least here I can get it off my chest without harming others.

I also know people mean well when they try to cheer you up and to affirm your right to post like this but they don't really mean it.  If you are not in this deep dark black hole then you cannot possibly know what it is like.

To think I used to believe in a God - makes me laugh now.

Anonymous
  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    wow, at last someone being honest....i am sorry that you find your self in this situation, i have been hesitant of posting like this because you dont appear to be allowed to be in this dark place, i could shout and scream at my husband and kids.....i dont feel like being happy and making the best of it....i just go through life at the moment BC(before cancer) seems such a distant place ...thanks for your post

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    Thanks too for your reply.  I know everyone here is so nice and the reason they don't post negatively is for obvious reasons.  However maintaining a pretence that everything is not so bad is so difficult.  My wife got home from hospital 3 years ago yesterday after major surgery - we hoped that was the end of it but never believed it would be.  When it returned it just confirmed our fears.

    In what we do we try to enjoy ourselves and keep active and so on and so on but it is that the first thing you think of in the morning - the last at night and a million times in between concerns one thing.

    We have found also that nobody else really cares - and I mean REALLY.  Why would we expect them to - anyone who knows is nice but half the time they are looking for your permission to move on to another subject - if they even ask how you are in the first place - which is surprisingly seldom.

    H

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember
    Your blog is one of the most raw and honest things I've ever read - and I agree with every word you said. I think of my cancer every morning when I wake. I put my feet on the floor and sometimes don't want to go any further. Then I feel guilty because I'm still alive after 5 years of cancer when so many others have died. But I'm in pain sometimes. And most of my time, to be honest I'm worrying about each new pain, or suspicious symptom I get. Or I worry about my death. Like everyone, I'm scared of suffering. I never relax any more. I never belly-laugh. The mental strain is sometimes overwhelming. And I'm ashamed to say I resent other people's good health. And no, I don't think other people do really, really care. They look and talk to me with pity, but I can tell that they're thinking 'thank god it's not me'. And I probably would have been the same about a million years ago - when my life was relatively carefree. Jeanie
  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    I confess that when a friend of ours had cancer some years ago we did very little other than offer our sympathy from time to time - truth is we lived in a different world from him and his wife.  Only now do I see how true that is.  There is more than one world.  There is a world where you make plans and look forward to what ever may be coming along - and then there is this monstrous world where no colours show true.  Do not get me wrong - we do not sit about moping all day.  Far from it, we do everything in our power to add variety and good things to our lives.  I will write more about that in time to come.

    One of the saddest things I find is that my wife cannot bear to be around any of her old friends.  we moved some years ago away from a place we had lived for years.  We kept in touch with so many people.  Now my wife has dropped them all - she finds it too hard to think of them as they are associated with when times were good, we had fun and a future.  My daughter is getting married in a few months but we will invite none of our old friends for the first time.

    It worries me but I cannot persuade her from her choice.