Living with Lung cancer and a temper

My Husband has been diagnosed with stage 2 lung cancer and the attitude is just getting worse. It was never brilliant but he now is just getting worse. He drinks too much and has a sharp temper so many evenings are spoilt by this. Married many years but he seems to be constantly annoyed with me, the children, friends who he never phoned,  but they phone him to see how he is. He’s so pleasant though outside the house and especially with the Nurses. I still work and look after grand children in my spare time so not under his feet. Words of wisdom please to make sense of this all. Thanks. 

Parents
  • Hello Egremont,

                             l can feel your pain,unhappiness and frustration,l am not sure l have too much wisdom but realised l came very close to and flirted with very much the same thing as you describe with your husband,As the cancer sufferer you feel that no one around you can possibly be aware of the destruction its wreaking upon your mind., so it is all too easy to dismiss those around you, The trouble is that you become so self centred and inward looking that you fail to to see how it is for the person nearest to you and the havoc it bestows upon them,

    Realising that you are both looking at the same coin at the same moment in time albeit as head and tail  was the wake up call for me,and thankfully l woke up before l inflicted too much pain on others,It was at this time accepting that it looked very likely l could die was my turning point. Instead of raging against it l focused on doing all l could in providing a secure future for my wife as l possibly could, which gave my life a meaning and purpose,and meant l was looking  forward over the horizon again,A new home built whilst undergoing surgery and chemo,and seven years on l am thankful that l found the right way to move forward,And that is the key,looking and moving forward,sitting and waiting for the worst to arrive is the tragedy that will pull you and those around you down,

    l cannot help you as to how to achieve this,l just know that it has to come from the patient within themselves,and everything else is just window dressing.AsJaneRu has indicated there are two sufferers in all of this,and as a sufferer you need to look to yourself a lot more, If you cannot change your husbands actions and he is not willing to change his,,make it plain to him that you can change yours and that you need to look to yourself if he is not wishing to keep "US" at the top of his agenda.

      l hope my honesty is of help to you,

                                                                 David

     

     

Reply
  • Hello Egremont,

                             l can feel your pain,unhappiness and frustration,l am not sure l have too much wisdom but realised l came very close to and flirted with very much the same thing as you describe with your husband,As the cancer sufferer you feel that no one around you can possibly be aware of the destruction its wreaking upon your mind., so it is all too easy to dismiss those around you, The trouble is that you become so self centred and inward looking that you fail to to see how it is for the person nearest to you and the havoc it bestows upon them,

    Realising that you are both looking at the same coin at the same moment in time albeit as head and tail  was the wake up call for me,and thankfully l woke up before l inflicted too much pain on others,It was at this time accepting that it looked very likely l could die was my turning point. Instead of raging against it l focused on doing all l could in providing a secure future for my wife as l possibly could, which gave my life a meaning and purpose,and meant l was looking  forward over the horizon again,A new home built whilst undergoing surgery and chemo,and seven years on l am thankful that l found the right way to move forward,And that is the key,looking and moving forward,sitting and waiting for the worst to arrive is the tragedy that will pull you and those around you down,

    l cannot help you as to how to achieve this,l just know that it has to come from the patient within themselves,and everything else is just window dressing.AsJaneRu has indicated there are two sufferers in all of this,and as a sufferer you need to look to yourself a lot more, If you cannot change your husbands actions and he is not willing to change his,,make it plain to him that you can change yours and that you need to look to yourself if he is not wishing to keep "US" at the top of his agenda.

      l hope my honesty is of help to you,

                                                                 David

     

     

Children