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Share your quitting journey

Some hope ahead

Angie-Lah
Member
0 8 5
  First, thank you all so much for the kind words, comments, thoughts and advice that you sent my way with news of my Dad's cancer recently. It is absolutely a testament to this website and the wonderful people here that one of my first thoughts upon hearing the news and getting totally overwhelmed was that I needed to reach back out to this community for strength and support, just like I got when I quit smoking. You are all so amazing and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I've moved past the anger that I felt initially. I was just so overcome with it that I couldn't function in a healthy way for a couple of days and with your words and support I've been able to move past that. We found out on Thursday that my dad's cancer has not spread past the original tumor in his lungs. With small cell lung cancer and him having already experienced symptoms, that is nothing short of miraculous and I'm so very grateful that it was discovered so early. There is still no cure for this cancer, but his prognosis is vastly better with it having been caught so fast and we may even see it go into remission if the chemo and radiation do their job. It's still going to be a very rough road ahead. This man survived multiple tours to Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq and I know he's terrified that something he can't even see has brought him so low so fast. He refuses to talk about it and gets angry when it's brought up so we're respecting that. I'm trying to be there for my mother because, like me, she needs to talk about it, to knock that monster back to it's knees through communication and he's not allowing her to do that. Which I understand. The news is still so fresh, and I'm sure he's just as scared as we are about what's to come. I'm sure I'll be back here often, reading your posts, cheering for the new quitters and hoping that the quit sticks for you all like it has for me. For those of you just starting out on your quit journey, please think of yourselves and your families and how relapsing can lead you right to where my family finds themselves. Look up the stats on how quickly your body starts to recover and how drastically your risk of cancer drops when you allow yourself to heal. Don't quit your quit. Stick to it. For you and for your family. I wouldn't wish this fear, uncertainty, and pain on anyone else or their loved ones. You still have time to avoid this.
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