Originally Posted by
VeggieDog
I clicked on this thread and was surprised to see that I had posted here back in 2015 shortly after being told I had cancer. At the time, I hadn't even started chemo yet.
Well, I'm happy to report that 7 months of chemo were successful in 2015-16 in knocking down the leukemia and I am in remission and on maintenance meds. The cancer will come back or morph into some other form, but I don't dwell on it. Sometimes it gets me down, but I snap out of it pretty quickly.
In one of my previous postings in this thread, I said I wouldn't see 70. Now I firmly believe I won't see 65. I'm 57 now.
To get to the heart of this thread, I am not afraid of death. I am not religious and I believe that death is final. There is no afterlife.
I have had 4 surgeries where I have been knocked completely out. I just went to sleep and then woke up. I didn't dream at all. I believe that's what death is. You just go to sleep (sometimes painfully), but you never wake up again.
I have come to terms with my situation and I strive to live life to the fullest. I eat and drink (mostly) what I want. I am friendly and polite to people. I travel to visit places I've never been before. I wear loud Hawaiian shirts and try to always have a smile on my face.
Live each day like it's your last, because it may well be. Do you want people to remember you as that asshole that cut them off on the freeway, or the guy that helped an older person load their groceries into their car?