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Sherryg683 · 10-31-2009, 08:59 PM

If your job is fun and rewarding keep doing it. When I was diagnosed stage IV, it hit me like a bullet. Here I was spending so much of my time working like a dog, putting pressure on myself and I might not have much time left, time that I should have been putting into my 7 year old daughter. I immediately quit and decided to enjoy life, which I have. I spend more time with my little girl and friends and just smelling the roses and worshipping God and nature. My brother was diagnosed with Melanoma 2 months before I was. He had just retired a month before his diagnosis from a stress filled job that he hated. He was working so hard to save for his retirement so he could do what he wanted. He died 2 years later and those two years were full of chemo and pain. He said his main regret in life was that he did not get to do the things he wanted to do, he was waiting till he retired. He said he wished he would have taken time to travel and fish and enjoy life. I think of him so often whenever I take off and go on trips or play my tennis or take my little girl shopping or to the park. I wish that he would have had a few years that he could have done these things. I may not have as much money as I use to, but I have sooo much more. I really appreciate life now and don't want to waste any of it. This being said again, if your work is fulfilling to you , then you are living your life as you want. If you are working because you think quitting would be admitting defeat, then I say you should definately reconsider exactly what that means. Everytime I do something that makes me tingle with what I call "the joy of being alive" I feel like I AM WINNING! I will not be defeated until the day I take my last breath, and hopefully, even then I will be the winner, if God so graces me. You could take whatever time God has planned for you, which can be many many years and go out and do things that you truely enjoy. What is this life for anyway? I would hope at the end of my life I would be thought of as someone who enjoyed life and people....not....boy she sure was a hard worker....lol..sherry

10-31-2009, 08:59 PM	#12
Sherryg683 Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 1,014	Re: Need Advice If your job is fun and rewarding keep doing it. When I was diagnosed stage IV, it hit me like a bullet. Here I was spending so much of my time working like a dog, putting pressure on myself and I might not have much time left, time that I should have been putting into my 7 year old daughter. I immediately quit and decided to enjoy life, which I have. I spend more time with my little girl and friends and just smelling the roses and worshipping God and nature. My brother was diagnosed with Melanoma 2 months before I was. He had just retired a month before his diagnosis from a stress filled job that he hated. He was working so hard to save for his retirement so he could do what he wanted. He died 2 years later and those two years were full of chemo and pain. He said his main regret in life was that he did not get to do the things he wanted to do, he was waiting till he retired. He said he wished he would have taken time to travel and fish and enjoy life. I think of him so often whenever I take off and go on trips or play my tennis or take my little girl shopping or to the park. I wish that he would have had a few years that he could have done these things. I may not have as much money as I use to, but I have sooo much more. I really appreciate life now and don't want to waste any of it. This being said again, if your work is fulfilling to you , then you are living your life as you want. If you are working because you think quitting would be admitting defeat, then I say you should definately reconsider exactly what that means. Everytime I do something that makes me tingle with what I call "the joy of being alive" I feel like I AM WINNING! I will not be defeated until the day I take my last breath, and hopefully, even then I will be the winner, if God so graces me. You could take whatever time God has planned for you, which can be many many years and go out and do things that you truely enjoy. What is this life for anyway? I would hope at the end of my life I would be thought of as someone who enjoyed life and people....not....boy she sure was a hard worker....lol..sherry __________________ Sherry Diagnosed: December , 2005 at age 44 13+ positive lymph nodes Stage IV , Her2+, 2 small mets to lungsChemo Started: Jan, 2006 4 months Taxotere, Xeloda, Hercepin NED since April 2006!! 36 Rads to follow with weekly Herceptin indefinately 8 years NED now Scans every year Life is not about avoiding the thunderstorms, it's about learning to dance in the rain! Last edited by Sherryg683; 10-31-2009 at 09:01 PM..