Christmas is Bittersweet With Metastatic Breast Cancer

I love the Christmas holiday season. There’s nothing more wonderful for me than decorating my home and wrapping presents. I leave all of the decorations up until after the new year so my house stays festive. Although it’s a most joyful time for me, there’s always that niggling thought that this could be my last Christmas. The joy is bittersweet for most people diagnosed with metastatic cancer. We are terminal, after all. We are also hugely aware that the members of our metastatic community whom we’ve lost won’t be with their families this year. Surprisingly, most of us are more concerned with how our loved ones and family will manage after we are gone. Who will decorate and lead the festivities? Do they know where everything goes? Will they just throw out the big plastic Santa? Who Will Decorate When We’re Gone? I first heard this question from a friend who told me about a woman she’d met while taking chemotherapy treatments. This woman was describing how she had labeled all of the Christmas decorations with clear instructions on where they were to be used. Since this conversation occurred after my initial diagnosis of stage 2 breast cancer, I couldn’t relate. It was my expectation to live for many years after the surgery and treatment — until the cancer came back as stage 4. Recently, my friend and fellow blogger Ann Silberman posted on Facebook that she, too, was concerned about how her family would celebrate the holidays after she was gon...
Source: Life with Breast Cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Breast Cancer Source Type: blogs