New Years Eve can always be a poignant time but I think for many of us this one will be more than ever. I thought that this might be a good way to share any triumphs or losses that we’ll be turning our mind to on the strike of 12.
What I’ve learned about myself this year is that on the Optimistic Scale I’m tipping the ‘extremely’ end - to the point of hysteria!
And so in that spirit, my view of 2011 is not one of doom and gloom but of thankfulness. I’m thankful that I’ve had the treatment and that the treatment has worked. On the otherhand I’m aware of those that 2011 has been vicious and unforgiving and my thoughts are with you.
I’m with you Scaco. I am embracing 2012 with optimism but not feeling dismal about 2011. This was the year that I was given the chance to live and along the way got to meet, (whether ‘virtually’ or in real life)some amazing women. I feel blessed and lucky.
However, I am also mindful that there are many who aren’t in that situation and I will be thinking of them too.
Here’s to a happy,peaceful and as healthy 2012 as possible for all!
Well, in a peculiar sort of way I’m grateful that I’ve had the experience of 2011 as I’ve learnt an awful lot, not least of which is to make the most of life as you only get one shot at it. I now look at the world through a very different pair of eyes, and it’s a beautiful place.
However, I’d much rather have had the lesson taught to me in a different way.
So I’m looking forward to 2012 and all the new challenges and experiences that it holds. I’ve already made a start by having a lovely Christmas and laying some of the ghosts of last Christmas to rest.
SCACO, you just keep your optimistic head on - I’m very aware that we’re among the lucky ones so let’s make the most of what we’ve been given.
My thoughts and prayers are with you all, especially those for whom 2012 is a scary thought. May we all have the very best year we can.
I thought 2011 was my new start for various reasons but it didn’t quite work out as planned. At some points during a year - pretty much - of treatment I have thought “so much for that.” Now - and I appreciate how lucky I am to be NED and my heart goes out to everyone in more difficult circumstances with this b*stard disease - I am thinking that 2012 will be an even better year for everything I have learned through adversity this year and for all the wonderful people I have met and become friends with along the way.
I feel very blessed to be going into 2012 after passing beyond the 5 year remission point a few weeks back. For me, 2011 was all about just getting to the end of it. I now feel I can move on and have signed up to another distance learning course for my field of work so I can hit the ground running. I also have 3 other projects that I deliberately mothballed for a while and I aim to resurrect them again as I feel I have more focus. However, I also realise for many on these boards things are not so straightforward.
I hope everyone has a peaceful and Happy new Year x
I wish I good be as upbeat as you.
Already scheduled for 2012: 30 appointments with the nurse, 17 treatments, 4 heart scans, 1 lymphodema clinic, likely 8 oncologist visits, and rads have yet to be determined. Well on the up side there won’t be any operation on my hip.
Sorry for being so morose, I had my loading dose of Herceptin yesterday and feeling under the weahter.
My resolution is if only i could understand why I feel so negative.It is 2 years since diagnosis and subsequent op, chemo an rads. have had heceptin all of 2011 an ongoing with arimedex for next few. Everything is looking good but I seem to have a black cloud following me and everything an is an effort.Christmas has been lovely with family an today I have had a memorable birthday with children an grandchildren. And yet I have this sinking feeling in me which I keep to myself for there is no rhyme nor reason to it.So many of you have had much worse - I feel somewhat of a fraud. but hey anyway to all , wherever they are with there treatment I raise my glass and wish a happy new year
While I have met some wonderful people in 2011 I’ve also met some horrible ones. And while you all count in the wonderful group I would wish, with the greatest respect , that I had never ‘met’ any of you.
2011 can leave with the 2-fingered salute. On balance it has been the worst year of my life.
2012I welcome you with open arms, I can’t believe you could be as bad. And looking to the future I hope to build on the amazing friendships that I HAVE made in 2011.
As my hubby says, 2011 WAS a GOOD year as it was the year that I found that I had breast cancer and received the treatment. His view is that it is much better to know you have it and be treated than not to know and have nothing done about it. Ignorance is certainly not bliss. 2011 is the year in which my life was saved.
If you think about it he is correct so let’s be thankful for something positive in 2011 ie our diagnosis and treatment and move into 2012 knowing that things can only get better,
In 2008 when I was dx with my recurrence it was almost exactly 4 years from my original dx in 2004. And so I have a nagging continual fear that it is going to happen again 4 years on in 2012. I have done many many things in the last 4 years that I would never have dreamed I’d do, overcome (sort of) my fear of flying for one, and celebrated my son’s degree and the birth of my granddaughter a year ago. I also have been lucky enough to get a new job in 2009 which is great. So 2012 … well I am going to keep my fingers crossed that it doesn’t have anything in store that I’d rather not have. I just want to keep my head down and get through it. Hope I’m sitting here this time next year still NED (which I have thankfully been now for 3 years), just keeping fingers crossed.
I feel optimistic too! At same time I don’t take things for granted (any more!). Finished active treatment last month and looking forward to getting fitter over coming months.
2011 hasn’t been my friend, but it has given me a wake up call. Just a shame that it’s also scared the crap out of my poor parents who didn’t expect to have this to deal with.
My wee brother was on ventilator for a week in June, but has come through it. I ‘found’ my lump! I went on a winter holiday (just for the hell of it!.
So many families are in impossible situations on these forums. It makes me really heavy hearted that so many are dealing with one piece of crap after another, but again it does help to keep things in perspective to read their stories.
Great to hear your thoughts. I’m very ready to kick 2011 up the bum, and am hoping for better things, like an almost return to normal, in 2012 - maybe too much to ask??
To those like Vercors who have so much ahead I wish you the strength to get through it and come out the other end.
I had lumpectomy a year ago today and had finished chemo and rads by the end of June but only now am beginning to feel I’ve found myself again. I feel extremely lucky that no time was wasted in getting my treatment and that everything was explained to me in great detail.
I,too, am grateful for all the lovely people and friends I have made on here and I know I would never have have coped as well without the encouragement and information I recieved through this website .
My family have been great and only now do I realise how scary it was for my grandchildren of 20 and 17 who have always lived with me.
I look forward to 2012 with optimism although I know there are no guarantees but what’s the point of worrying about something which may not happen?
My best wishes to all of you that you get everything you wish for yourself and family in the coming new year and the years ahead,
Margaret x x x x
“Hoping 2011 has been kind to you” - so went a card from a former colleague. I hadn’t realised how out of touch we had become, she has totally missed all the cancer stuff, never mind about me retiring and then losing two close family members within a fortnight. I read my friend’s card and almost feel off my chair laughing, if it’s not unkind to laugh at such a situation. 2011, kind? LOL. We are meeting to catch up and put the world to rights once holiday time is back to normal.
So yes, I kick 2011 soundly in the butt! I am really not going to miss it one little bit. Hesitating slightly to wish that 2012 can be no worse - that is not a challenge… and glad that at least I don’t have a pesky french silicone implant to worry about.
Hot choc is on me as we wait countdown to the fireworks.