I am new here, been diagnosed with two separate cancers this year. I am dealing with this on my own. My companion dog passed away and I am very much alone and feeling pretty overwhelmed with it all.
Hi DippyHippy and a very warm welcome to the Macmillan Community but sorry to hear about your diagnosis and to hear about your companion dog.
I know from experience having been on my cancer journey for over 25 years with two very rare, hard to treat types of Non Hodgkin’s Lymphomas (one incurable) that navigating this journey can be such a stressful and challenging time but talking with and getting support from people who have walked or are walking the ‘exact same' journey can help a lot.
As you have noticed the Community is actually divided into dedicated Support Groups (Discussion Rooms) and I can see that you already joined and put up a post in our dedicated
…….. support area. This group is a safe place to talk to others with a similar diagnosis, treatment experience, to ask questions and get support.
The Macmillan Support Line is open between 8am-8pm (timings may differ across services) 7 days a week on 0808 808 00 00…… this service provides cancer information, practical information, emotional support, benefits/financial/work guidance or just a listening ear.
Talking to people ‘face to face’ can be very helpful so do check to see if you have any Local Macmillan Support in your area, do also check for a local Maggie's Centre as these folks are amazing.
It’s a pleasure to be here and give you some advice and ways to get some support.
As a family we had a few ongoing note books that were used over my 25 years treatment journey where we had the questions we needed answers for, the answers we got and basically kept a record of the journey….. in the back pages we had or Hopes and Dreams Pages….. thus us where we looked forward to the post treatment world….. looking at these pages we done big ticks where we have achieved our goals…… with lots more to aim for.
Take care.
