Hi, 

In the words of a CRUK leaflet “It’s Cancer - of course you’re worried”! 

Lucky is a relative word. For example, I feel luckier than my friend Max who died of cancer, but not as lucky as my brother who has never had cancer despite him being a heavy smoker for many years. 

If further treatment is planned, you’d be unusual (possibly in denial) if you weren’t worried that you’re not out of the woods yet. So far, so good but you’re in the stage of watchful waiting between treatments. 

There’s still a taboo amongst many people about talking about cancer. Your friends might be afraid to ask in case they appear to be insensitive, or might trigger your worries. 

How you approach this depends on your preferred approach to life. I got so fed up of ***-footing around other people’s feelings that I started posting updates of Facebook to save them asking. Obviously I told my wife and family in person but a post along the lines of “that’s my last chemo session over - I’ll find out in early February whether it’s worked or not!” helped with curious work colleagues and friends. Not everyone is comfortable about sharing personal information so publicly. 

If the anxiety gets too much, don’t hesitate to discuss this with your GP or your MacMillan nurse (if you have one). Help is there, but you often need to ask before it is offered. 

Good luck!
Dave

The automated censorship on here is hilarious - the censored word wasn’t rude at all pu55y-footing lol

The automated censorship on here is hilarious - the censored word wasn’t rude at all pu55y-footing lol

 thank you so much for your reply and your advice. I’m not too sure about sharing publicly yet but I get how useful and therapeutic this may be. Just writing it down can help. Thank you again you’ve helped in that I know  I’m not alone.