[Barbara2]

Early in my cancer journey, people said to me "You're a fighter," or "be strong." I wondered if this might actually make a difference, and if so, then I needed to somehow find a way to be positive and strong. (I understand, though, that people sometimes struggle with what to say, and they may feel that these are encouraging words.) And, finding the silver lining in all of this, and enjoying each day as it comes, sure makes the cancer take a back seat once in a while.

In time, though, I came to believe that cemeteries were filled with people who tried to be "strong" or a "fighter." Many years ago my father died from liver cancer and he SO wanted to live; he was fairly young, active, loved life, and valiently fought the disease. He died from cancer, though, and not from not fighting hard enough.

I wonder if Dr. Phillips really believed that "how you go into it is what you get out of it?" I had similar thoughts about this kind of advice when we learned that Elizabeth Edward's cancer had come back and some of the reports made it sound like that was no big deal.

Stress...my feelings are that it very possibly contributed to my cancer. I became a sponge for stress at a very young age.