Hi Mer,

The answer is I feel we all deal with news like this differntly and the best way we can. Where cancer is concerned, there is no real normal so please dont feel stupid. I wish you all the best on you cancer journey and please let us know how you get on, Brian.

Hi Mer

I just want to assure you that your emotions are perfectly normal and rational. Everyone deals with this differently but I have the same outlook as you, when I visited the oncologist he was very matter of fact and got straight into the practical measures of what was to be done. I liked this approach and it brought me a calm outlook to deal with what was ahead. Obviously cancer is a serious thing but I often make jokes about it in a dark way, it keeps me sane. I occasionally, at that point between sleep and waking in the morning, have a 2 second panic and think f***i*** (the place where sinners end up) "Ive got cancer". Then I get up have my coffee and get on with day ahead. Welcome to the forum. Kim

Hi Mer,

Welcome to the forum - though sorry that you have a reason to join us.

There's no right or wrong way to deal with this stuff, some people cry for days on end and slip into a deep depression from which they never emerge. Others are just (in the words of Roger Waters) comfortably numb and somehow muddle through. Some take a heroic stance and vow to fight this with all their might - and they do.

Me? I just muddle through feeling emotionally numb and face each challenge as and when it comes into view. None of us are heroes or saints, we just do what is needed to get through. I was diagnosed in 2013 and have yet to shed a tear or get over-emotional - though I have been falling down drunk because of it a time or two! Maybe it's my repressed upbringing as a Northern lad born in the fifties, maybe I'm an emotionless psychopath - your guess is as good as mine, but that's how I am.

The whole situation is so absolutely ridiculous if you can't laugh about it, you'd cry and where's the fun in that? Life is for living - cancer has made me realise that my time is limited, so we need to live it while I can and leave our loved ones with as many good memories as we can!

So - welcome to the comfortably numb club, as well as to the forum! 

Cheers

Dave