different planet

darCraig

Sometimes I feel that post-cancer I live on a different planet from most of my friends and family.  It's not that we don't have good relationships, but there is a difference - I have been through a lot that I couldn't have imagined, and sure didn't want to go through.  When they complain about health worries, I find myself half listening - they have no idea.  I feel like they are "cancer virgins", which of course they are - wish I was too!  The other part of it is that I have come through - changed, but I survived.  I get impatient with myself too, because I don't seem to have quite the energy or resilience that I used to.  I have a couple of family members who LOVE sharing every test, every ache with you, and dramatizing every thing the dr. says - I'm not kidding!  I just shake my head - what I would have given to hear "it's nothing", and they don't seem happy about it!  Just amazes me!

I know I'm feeling extra this way right now, because my son't marriage is breaking up.  He is paraplegic, and I think his wife just doesn't want to be married to someone with a disability.  I can't help feeling and thinking that she is just not the girl we thought she was.

I have a button someone gave me that says "I've survived dammed near everything", and boy that is how I feel sometimes! 

dsub

I totally Understand. I catch myself doing the same, half listening to my fellow complainers for colds coughs, general aches and pains, and think, wow wonder what they would say if they had my problem, I AM NOT WISHING it on them, just wondered how they would react and if they realize just who they are talking to.