Hi, Just wondered whats your thoughts on Christmas this year… I had my operation on the 17th of December last year so Christmas and new year were totally out of the window !!!
This year I’m on a really tight budget but so want to make it special and not sure how to go about it!
I know a lot of you ladies can’t even bare to think this far ahead but I think it will give us something to aim for !!!
Tell me what your doing to make Christmas special…
Love Teresa xxx
Hi Teresa
I have always loved the magic of Christmas, my first one after my diagnoses was a little difficult and emotional, and I remember sitting by myself wrapping all the old christmas tree decorations (all of which had strong memories linked to our 5 childrens childhood) in floods of tears thinking that I wouldnt be there the following year! I actually wrote a letter which I hid in the box for them (all adults now) to read the following year in case I wasn’t there!! That was 6 years ago, but I still have kept the letter in the box and just look at it when decorating the tree, it does make me feel thankful for those years that I didnt think that I would have.
Now when I think about the coming festive period I just want all the family to be together, gifts are nice, but they are really not that important. (Although I would LOVE a new little Lancashire Heeler puppy to go with my other two buddies!!!)
I am not a religious person but I will go to a little 16th century chapel near to where I live on Xmas Eve it hasnt been changed in all these years and they do a candlelight service, I just love sitting there in the dark thinking of all the generations that have gone before and it just calms me.
I work within the NHS in admin so on the day itself I will be working for a few hours, but I also kind of like that as it is a lovely feeling in the hospital on that day!
I hope that whatever you do you too will enjoy the time.
x
Oh what a good thread Theresa. Thsnkyou.
It’s my first Christmas since dx in march, and I have finished mt Chemo and rads do am hoping for decent ish hair and eyebrows by then. we haven’t made firm plans yet but my two little boys, who are 5amd 3, are on a countdown and pouring through toy catalogues! I will try not to be too tearful but things like school carol concerts and pantomimes are always emotional at the best of times! I will be helping out at school as much as I can as I have been unable to. I will be doingt best to provide a big traditional Christmas for my boys.
And then I really want to try and get away somewhere hot for new year as I think that may be a tricky one as I had no idea what this year would bring, so want to break the mould and start if off differently this time! And also we are due a bl@@dy good holiday!
Vickie
I’m going back to Scotland for Christmas but will miss my lovely man. We both have fathers we want to spend Christmas with as they are not getting any younger so want to spend it with my dad but will miss him.
I want to go to church this year not particularly religious but i love the atmosphere on Christmas eve.
I am going to try even harder this year to get something really personal for everybody.
xxxxxx
Yes, this is a good thread idea. My thoughts are already turning to xmas, when chemo will be finished. I am really hoping I can persuade them to leave my mx till after xmas, that will be nearly a month after last chemo, but have no schedule. Really want to be fit (ish) by then.
One thing which will be extra special for me this year, is actually being able to attend all the school functions (well fingers crossed) as normally I am working, (being a teaching myself in a different school) and have to miss all my young sons assemblies and such.
Can’t wait to be there for him…
Normally I work lots of extra hours over xmas apart from xmas day and boxing day as my kids are teenagers so working or revising and lots of my team have young kids so have time off to spend with them. This year it will be nice to be an “at home mum” for them, being on my own since they were pre-school they have never had this and get to watch all the xmas tele rather than hear about it from others.
Just realised another bonus will be I can get the xmas food shop done at the quieter times, yeah!!!
I had my last chemo on 23rd of December last year so Christmas was a bit of a blur. We got everything for Christmas lunch from M&S so that it was easy for hubby.It all looked very nice but had no taste whatsoever as a result of the chemo. I am so looking forward to a fab Christmas lunch, also my works Christmas party. I missed it last year as the weather was awfull and snow stopped play. It was to be the first and only outing for my wig and we had to turn around part way to the venue as the snow was so bad.The only problem being that I don’t have an excuse to buy another dress as nobody saw the last one!!
this is a lovely thread i love christmas .last christmas eve i was having my seroma drained and a puss bag fitted to help me over christmas had mx nov 12th .this year i am putting decorations up all over the house and having my lovely children grandchildren over to fill the house with laughter and happiness eat delicious food and as my mom used to say have a good knees up.hopfully i will be celebrating the birth of my new grandson due on 1.1.11 then i will have a good cry watching all the old xmas movies then crying out of joy and relief then i will cry feeling sorry for myself then i will feel happy have a good laugh at myself for being silly,and my poor husband will be sitting on sofa with party hat on thinking ive gone bonkers.but it will be fun missmessyxx
Super idea for a thread, thankyou. Last Christmas was the last time I feel my world was still ok as in Jan/Feb this year the bc took over so to speak. I am looking forward to watching the school nativity plays and Carol concert and presume I may need more tissues than usual! The boys are going to be little bit more indulged, we usually try not to spoil them, but they have had a tough time, too, this year! I am having another op in November but hope to be fit for Xmas. X
Hi everyone.
Im going to have such a blow out as Im getting my reconstruction early January!!
Im going to have sexy undies on my christmas list lol !!So we are hoping to go away and be spoilt just a bit-then I need to make sure the house is tidy for my sis who’s coming to look after me for a week!!!
Hope all your plans work out
Great to have a fun thread!!
Cathie xx
My, Oh my, Well what a fab response, to be honest i just sat thinking in my darkest moments about last Christmas which was so full of tears and despair…
A year later, touch wood I now find myself planning Christmas and SO looking forward to it !!!
The last year has been so hard, there were times I thought I would never get through this… Hey… Guess What !!! WE DID…
So I think we should all make this a spectacular Christmas where possible, and also to those ladies just DX… Don’t LET IT ruin your Christmas, as I know I did last year…
I also have a second celebration I made my OH a Big Promise last year as his Birthday is Dec 20th, obviously that went out the window, but this year he is 60 yrs SO my promise to him last year was to make it special… And this I intend to do!!!
We don’t have money, in fact some days we barely scrape through, but what we do have is love, me, my OH who is my ROCK and soulmate, and my two loving son’s who still live at home, aged 22 and 24…They are the one’s who got me through this year, and for this I’m eternally grateful !
Love to all Teresa xxxx
Thanks for the thread Teresa.
The build-up to Christmas is really starting now, with all the adverts etc on TV and cards etc in the shops. I even received my first Christmas card through the post last Wednesday!!
Last year at this time I had no idea what was about to happen this year and just taking it all for granted. This year I am just so pleased to still be here and hopefully going to celebrate Christmas with my family. It was Christmas Day last year as I was happily stood drinking a glass of champagne at my sister’s house when I got a pain in my left breast and I just thought something wasn’t right, it was very painful. The next day, Boxing Day, in the shower I found a small lump, I went to the doctor’s on the 29th and that was the start of it all, even though my GP thought it was just a cyst and even tried to drain it!
It wasn’t a cyst and had mx in February, followed by chemo and rads, finished at the end of August. Now on Tamoxifen. I am feeling so much better pyhsically these days but mentally still reeling from all that has happened and miss the “old me” but know I have to find the “new me” although it’s pretty scary at times!!
I’m starting to feel a little Christmassy now and have just made a Christmas cake today. I hope you have a fabulous Christmas and I too want to spoil everyone and make it special for them, especially my wonderful daughter and sister who have helped me get through this year. Their support has been wonderful.
Love Beverley xx
Hi
Christmas certainly has lots of BC association for me!
I was diagnosed 22nd December, the day the BC unit shut for the Christmas break, the consultant, a BC nurse and I were the only ones left, as everybody else had already left for their Christmas lunch. I went home and my husband and I sobbed all afternoon, I then thought that I would always associate Christmas with breast cancer. Added to this I had just found the lump hours before our school Christmas concert, the children could have said anything and I wouldn’t have known, as my head was elsewhere and I was holding back the tears and I still felt physically sick. I didn’t tell anyone else until after Christmas, but my husband and I were really ‘together’ and we made the best of and actually really enjoyed Christmas.
Bizarrely I thought that for future Christmas’s I would have an unhappy association, in fact the opposite is true. I was diagnosed Christmas 2006, so the next 3 Christmas’s have almost been a marker, but not a negative one! It has made me look forward to the future and even more determined to enjoy it and has opened my eyes to what is important in life, like shared family time and less emphasis on wasting money on unnecessary plastic for the children!
I am also starting to think ahead to Christmas, as unfortunately I have been diagnosed with secondaries this year. 6 months ago, I would have anticipated that I would have been thinking ‘could this be my last Christmas?’ Now I am thinking that I need to celebrate surviving another year and enjoy every aspect. I have just booked to go to the Christmas markets in Germany as I have always wanted to do this, but have always previously been working.
So here’s wishing that everyone else on here is able to give themselves a little extra ‘treat’ this Chrismas, as we certainly deserve it, with the amount of **** that all of us, whatever stage of treatment we are at, have to endure all year.
Love to you all and early Christmas wishes!
Nicola
This reminds me of the Christmas I was diagnosed. I received my results on Dec 22nd and remember the consultant saying to me that he would have to have me back in, but to stay overnight this time. All I remember saying was “I have got to go and do my christmas shop as my mum and dad are coming for dinner”. He laughed and stroked my hand and said " not now dear, I mean in the new year". My children were 6 months old and 8 years at the time. I spent that Christmas filling their stockings and crying to myself convinced that it was my last. They are now 16years and 24 years old. Christmas I have to say was never really the same after that one…a little bit of the magic had been sucke out of it. My mum and dad are sadly no longer with us…but hey ho I am still here!!!
Love to you all xx
Forgot to add …that was Christmas 1994!!x
Last year I’d had two operations and asked my surgeon if he could ‘give me Christmas’ before my mx. He agreed and I had a very horrid Christmas waiting for my third op of a mx on January 4th 2010.
Whichever way you look at Christmas it is a difficult reminder isn’t it?
I’m really not looking forward to the festive season as I just know the memories will flood back…
I think when you know everyone else will be happy it can put you under pressure if you don’t feel the same! With a more normal day to day life I can temporarily forget my dx but Christmas with its great expectations and more space to think I am worried…
I don’t have children so maybe that is a large factor!
Those of you with family coming together must feel so different.
To have time to spend together will be a great treat for so many of you. Those with youngish children will have a ball, although tiring!
I think it was Tina who said she wants to spoil her boys a little this year for the difficult year they’ve experienced too.
A really great sentiment.
Enjoy all your planning towards this great family tradition.
Welsh girl
Oh dear I’ve just read this was meant to be a ‘fun’ thread!
I seem to have ‘darkened’ the tone…
Hi Welsh girl, I totally agree with you it’s a dificult reminder, more of a wake up call to me…
But hey honey, we are still here fighting the battle, it’s not to do with expectations,for the first time in being a parent I DON’T feel under pressure, because this has taught me my life is not about material things, however full of this from marketing,Advertising…etc… for the first time I’m not prescribing to it !!!
I totally understand how you feel, but try to look on as said earlier, another Christmas you have survived !!! Be proud, you have done it… Your stronger than you think, you must be to get this far…
Welsh girl, you take care…
Love Teresa xxx
P.S lol… i just seen your last paragraph… You have not put a downer on it… I kind of giggled to your comment, just the sort of thing I would do!!! xxx
You’re right I have survived to see another festival!
It turns my thinking on its head anyway???
Thanks for that.
You take care Teresa.
Keep strong.
xx
Welsh girl, that’s correct, it’s all to do with positive thinking… YOU HAVE SURVIVED …another year, yes it may it be shi…y, but you done it … Well Done, congratulate yourself…
One of my motto’s I picked up along the way is I’ve got Cancer, It Hasn’t got me !!!
Take care… love Teresa xxx
Hi Ladies,
It seems to me that we should be celebrating Christmas as the time our cancers were discovered and dealt with. I had MX and node removal on the 16th December. I managed to spend a few hours on Christmas day at my brothers and although I was tired it was wonderful. My worst time was between January and May when I was on Tax. Even so, I am off to Lanzarote for 3 weeks in Feb to celebrate the fact that I am still here.
I know that some people feel that Christmas is for children but that is not true. We should all join in the fun, buying presents, going to Carol Services and generally celebrating the season and the fact that we are still here.
When we wake on Christmas morning we should think of all our ‘friends’ on BCC and give thanks for all the help and support we receive from them.
E