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Dying young & alone Why?

I was diagnosed with IDC (breast Cancer) in August of 2007, I went through the chemo, the bilateral mastcetomy, My whole circle of family and friends were a huge support to me going through this. We had lost my father in 1996 to a brain tumor, he was only 49. In June of 2009 my oncologist told me that I have Adenocarcinoma effecting the inferior mediastinal nodes, on the outside on my lungs, he labled me terminal, 6 months to a year, I am now in my 8th month, enrolled Hospice since July. I am only (just)) 38. I have no one to talk to that understands what this is like, my whole circle for whatever reason, perhaps the burden of my upcoming death, have walked away from me. I ask my Hospice nurse "isn't there other dying people out there that i can talk to? Other terminally ill people that will TRULY understand my thoughts, my feelings?" She said simply, "no" So I decided to look online for a terminal chat room, and this is what i found. I am afraid to die alone, afraid to die when my Hospice people are not here. I need others that understand the harsh realities of being terminally ill with a very agile mind because i am young. I never married nor had any children, out of choice, I wanted to pursue my carrer in the arts before i settled down. I was able to have a final wish come true through The Dream Foundation, which was way cewl :)... At any rate, I just don't understand why everyone has walked away from me, it is my belief that my circle of friends and family are tapping their fingers "waiting for that phone call", i feel like a bad secret that everyone put in the closet..... Why can't birds of a feather flock together?- Why do the dying have no one to relate to? I feel very alone in my journey as my symptoms remind me everyday that i am Terminal...

Alone,

Terminal

  • Hi Tanya

    I just had to post and say i am thinking of you,  you are so special with your open and honest thoughts my heart goes out to you

    Sending a huge big hug

    Luckyus

  • Hey T,

    How goes it...time to move on from the past and those old friends and family that left you behind and leave them behind... They are trying so hard to justify why they are being how they are so let them get on with it... If you need closure get some Christmas cards and put a brief note in there saying your goodbye not from life just from the past...

    I am lying in bed typing this as had the Irinotecan yesterday evening and just resting!

    Hope you are the cool rock chick that you are...dont forget that email with address...also check me out on skype...would be good to say high on Christmas day!

    Cheers and much love

    Tony xxx

  • Dear Tanya,

    Hope you're feeling alright.

    You were writing about time passing. Feeling bored?

    I'm thinking it's time to take a break, and go to my favourite place to wind down; Glastonbury, Somerset in England (I don't mean the concert, but the town).

    Fortunately we'll Google Earth there.

    We'll meet in Chilkwell Street and go into Chalice Well.  Why?  The legend has it that Joseph of Arimathea caught the blood of Jesus after the Crucifixion in a chalice.  Then Joseph went to Glastonbury and buried the chalice (you'll know it as the Holy Grail).

    We'll drink water from Chalice Well (it's said to be healing) then have a coffee at White Spring.  White Spring is a cafe where a spring runs through it.

    After our rest, we'll walk to Wearyall Hill, and tie ribbons to the tree that denote our wishes/prayers.  The legend says that when Joseph of Arimathea landed in Glastonbury, he threw his staff into the ground and a tree sprang up in it's place (that's the tree we'll be tying our ribbons on).

    Time for another rest, I think.  There's more to do another day.

    What do you think, Tanya? Maybe there's a place you could take us to, or maybe we'll continue our tour of Glastonbury...

    To one of the things you wrote in your last post "When I get close, I get too close?"  There's no such thing.  Yes, too close means you're opening yourself up to hurt.  That's what life's about though; hurting and healing.  After that it's assuring yourself you'll never get that close again, but you do, and you must.  And you know that.

    Unfortunately, for those who should answer your call, they will hurt and without forgetting (which they won't be able to do) may never be able to heal.

    Best wishes

    Kathy

  • Dear Tanya,

    I haven't heard from you.

    Hope you're alright.

    Best wishes

    Kathy

  • Dear Tanya,

    Maybe I should have suggested anywhere but Glastonbury.  I'm afraid you found the other side of the place.

    It reminds me of a legend I forgot.  In the 7th century, St Collen was invited by a messanger to visit Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Faries.

    On the third invitation, St Collen went to visit Gwynn ap Nudd in the Underworld, and was careful not to eat there.  He'd heard that if you ate fairy food, you were unlikely to return from the underworld.

    St Collen didn't eat, and had taken a phial of holy water to sprinkle there.  He  did this and everything around him disappeared.  He was left sitting on top of Glastonbury Tor with only grass and wind around him.

    Now I'm a worrier so I'm hoping that you didn't get an invitation to visit the underworld, and if you did that you didn't accept, or if you did that you didn't eat any food offered to you by Gwyn ap Nudd.

    That may have been a legend, but it came from somewhere.

    So write soon and allay my fears.

    Best wishes

    Kathy

  • Funny you say that....I have been feeling as though I ate something very bad & a couple of evenings ago, I went to close my bedroom door & saw what looked like excessively large ears attached to a head of equal size in my hallway;  I was too tired & lacked concern to re-open the door & investigate.  After hunkering down for the cold winter night, I looked into my dresser mirror & saw the ugliest face staring back at me.  I began to entertain these thoughts of "Do I really know where I'll be going?"  I don't need the religious lectures on that topic from any of my readers thank you kindly but it does bring out the Human in me, no one has ever come back from death to let us know what their new pad looks like;  that is within the deeper of my thoughts, on the surface & in my heart, it is Faith that assures me...

    I sent a text to the family members that I (may) see on Christmas Eve; "What would you like for Christmas?"  My eldest Brother is so hard to buy for, he wants it, he buys it.  His response to my inquiry gave me mixed emotions.  "Anything I can keep for the rest of my life to remember this Christmas forever everytime I look at it."  The few things that ran through my mind.....Am I obligated to give him such a gift?  Its not like he has been here as you all know.  But, on the other hand, I know I refuse to deal with this cancer-bitten life for another 365 days.  I figure this Christmas to be my last; he is my brother of whom I've known my entire life; he was that Big Brother to his little sister for many years; as my kinship heart gets the best of me, I too would like to get him something nearest to his Christmas wish..... Help?  Anyone?  I thought of buying an empty journal, writing out the whole entire day from the time I wake to the time we exchange gifts; go into the bathroom, throw a ribbon on it & gift it to him.  He could always pick it up & read "That Christmas" word for word.  As you all know, as time passes, its the little things that leave our memories, in this gift would be every single moment of the time all of us spent Christmas 2010 together......However, I am willing to hear any other suggestions from you all.

    This morning I feel as though the Dark-Figure had crept into my body as I slept; leaving, what feels like, little demons with large intimidating very sharp pointy teeth, gnawing at my stomach :-/  I will NOT entertain the thought of stomach mets.  I cried yesterday, I had all I could do to stop myself from saying, "I quit!"  I simply can not take this anymore.  There always comes a time in ones life where repatition can turn your mind into walking the insanity plank.....Somethings gotta give!!

    With that being said, perhaps it is I that can not let go of ME......Everyone that was around me, has.  Here I thought there was someone out there so devistated by their loss of me that they couldn't let me go.  Now I walk down a road where I dig through my mind trying to figure out if this is my answer......If only the symptoms would go away long enough for me to really focus on something else; I would know.

    Someone, somewhere, died last night.  I don't know them, never will, but they are in my mind.  "How was it kind Sir?"  "Did you have just that brief moment where you felt the worst you ever had just before passing?"  "Were you aware of your final breath?"  "Greeted by people you have lost?" I know you are unable to answer me kind Sir, please know that I hope your heart was filled with peace at that very moment when you let go......

  • poety makes me wonder how you are doing so i throught i would send you one i read today

    For ever or an instant -who knows

    how long I`II wander through this world.

    I thank the world in equal part.

    Whatever happens ,I swear,

    the only thing I`ll bless is lightness-

    the transience of your sadness,

    and the silence of my end.

    I always have my foot in my mouth and I am not sure if i am doing the right thing in writting this and i am obviosly not suggesting you do it but i think of it as a wepon in my armoury.I am to chemo brained to remember where i learned of it .I think it was a religious community,when they knew the end of there days were close they would give up food for one day a week and when they were ready ,which could be the week after or 100 weeks after they would give food up for two days,and continue this process untill they were no longer eating ,then a day at a time they would do the same thing with drinking and of course at any time you could change your mind.I think the idea is that in the end death is a blessing jjust as birth  is and when the time is right you embrace it but not before your time and it is to make you set value on the time that you have.I know this is not the most cheery of posts but for me this makes me know i do want today and tommorrow.They slip through my fingers so fast but each meal i make means i do want the next one and i am not yet at the point where i push the plate aside.Best excuse ever for a good glass of wine.

  • Dear Tanya,

    It's good to hear from you.

    Yes, I did get carried away with the religious bit, but I won't do it again.  Although you did say "noone knows what the new pad looks like:"  I have an example of that in a story my friend's sister has when she died on the operating table, but no, I won't go on again...

    Anyway, what caught my eye was something you wrote about your eldest brother's response was when you asked him what he'd like for Christmas. "Anything I can keep for the rest of my life

    to remember this Christmas forever."

    A response that filled you with joy surely.  I know it did me, for you are loved.  Maybe not in the way you feel you deserve to be at this time, and maybe more than you can realise.  I feel that you impact on the people closest to you, though you don't know it.  In turn, they do the same with you, otherwise what problem would there be at their not meeting your needs?

    I'm no good at buying presents for people either.  Anything I give to a person has to be functional, and your brother isn't asking for that, but more that it be a present that he will always look at and know it was you who sent it to him.  Happy searching(!)

    Be at peace with being loved.  I think it will stay with you always.

    Best wishes,

    Kathy

  • Mets to stomach is not entertaining.

    But, if suppose general cancer power hasn't grown, then

    it has to divide it between old and new location.

    So if immune system resists (feeling of "food poisoned" may be just that),

    chances to improve may even grow.

    It seems the 2 lurky lumps hasn't shown themselves, so the same

    may happen to new area.

    [[ ]]

  • For entertainment: several more pics:

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