Gets lonely on the PC board sometimes

And another makes two.

I just got home from my family's yearly Christmas gathering. It's nice.....seeing the family. We can go a year....and not see each other....and get together....and there is love. My mom is 88 with alzhiemers. She's so beautiful tonight. And my brother in law. G9 in nodes....diagnosed a month after me. He looks like he could compete in a tri-athelon. Such a cool guy. He just doesn't worry about himself. He's an engineer....the science of it all is what brings out his curiousity about his disease. Granted....I don't live with him. But....I've known him 35 years....and I've spoken with my sister about his attitude. He truly doesn't worry about it.

The holidays...and hospitals. Yeah....it's bad being in the hospital during the holidays. Just from a point of practicality....I've found from my own experience that....during the holidays in the hospital....doctors are not around as much...and the people working there....they seem to have more on their minds than work. It's not the time to be hospitalized....

It's quite here. I live alone. It did me so much good to be out tonight. makes me feel ... alive.

I like this forum. It's real. Real people with real issues. Trouble makes us more open....to each other's problems....it softens us...there's good in travails. There's silver linings....that we miss...if we're not careful....we miss what's important....maybe....the most important.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Nice post WOE.

This is my first holiday season since my pca diagnosis. I had been quietly battling my other issues at the VA. I'm normally a very reserved and private person and my poor family doesn't know the half of it. My family and friends would say almost a hermit since since coming home. This year was a bit different. I've gone out with friends, went fishing many times with my brother and our kids, called my father for first time in five years. Did all the things I should have been doing all along. I just decorated the hell out of my home and invited the entire family over for a Christmas celebration. Everyone showed up and it was a wonderful day that I'll get to take with me forever. I plan on continuing these sort of things no matter how far out of my comfort zone. We never know what the future holds and I've missed enough of my past for many reasons or excuses. I'm also thankful to have found this HW forum. Everyone here has helped me a great deal getting through the first several months of this. Mostly, it's good to know that I'm not alone in this fight. Thanks for being there. Merry Christmas!

Frosty

I wish us all peace! Denis

And another wonderful Christmas experience to add to this group! We have had the grandson the last two days now he's over at other grandparents. It's great to have the enthusiasm of a 5 yr boy around good for us old fogies!! This Christmas has been really different for my wife and I you know last year I was diagnosed with cancer in Oct so I knew I had it but was working doing everything just like nothing different but this year prostate surgery, hernia surgery, shoulder replacement, and recurring cancer. My employer makes us sign up for SSDI to get our sickness and accident pay and I automatically qualified with my cancer diagnosis and arthritis and degenerative disk disease. So I will be forced to retire, I wasn't really ready for that. So yes PCA has changed our lives and will continue to do so But at Christmas time it makes you realize more than ever the love of family and friends! May everyone have a Great Christmas!!

Larry

I don't celebrate Christmas in the religious sense, not because I'm an atheist, but because I'm Jewish. But Christmas seems to be a universal holiday and time for giving thanks for what we've got, as much as Thanksgiving if not more, so in that sense I do celebrate.

I've got lots to thank God for, even with all the health issues that have hit me and my family the last few years. Thankful also for this forum, without which I am not sure how I would have gotten through my diagnosis and treatment with my sanity intact. You guys saved me a lot if money that would've otherwise been spent on a shrink 😂.

it pains me to see the extraordinarily steady stream of newcomers to the forum. But I hope they take comfort in seeing through my and other "veterans" experiences, that life goes on. For a really long time.

I'm sure I'll say this again next week, but why wait. May the time between this Christmas and next, be a time of health, happiness, and peace for us all.

As one of the older members of the forum here (both in terms of my chronological age and in terms of my length of forum participation), I am certainly aware, as virtually all of us will be, of the standard treatments for this illness of ours, PCa.

There is surgery, radiation, active surveillance, and perhaps the argument that certain other things also prove useful.

Well, I would like to submit that there is something else that indeed qualifies as a kind of treatment for this condition we share: participation in a high-quality online information-and-support forum such as this one.

HW PC is a virtual fountain of information and support for so many, all year long.

It treats our spirits, in a way like those other things mentioned above treat our bodies.

Any of us can come here anytime, ask for and receive information, find out about new treatments and medications, learn from the shared experiences of others, and, if we feel the need to do so at times, even engage in a rant, knowing that we will be fully understood and accepted.

Let us all be grateful for that, the opportunities that HW PC presents us to do all these things.

Treatment for the spirit.

Something else. Here in the Southeastern U.S. there is a chain of grocery stores called Publix Supermarkets. The company for this chain has had a tradition for several years now of running heart-warming TV spots about practicing and enjoying the spirit of Christmas. Some might consider their spots sentimental and naive, but perhaps they do offer a certain charming picture of what the spirit of Christmas really should mean.

Such as this one, the welcoming spirit of which, when I saw it, sort of reminded me of the kind of welcoming spirit that I have seen practiced here in this forum so often:

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWv2IpgTjhA

I have seen so many times that those who come here, new, can expect this same kind of welcoming spirit.

This is great forum, and let us all strive to keep it as helpful and useful to others who come here in the coming year as it has proven to be for us in the past.

And on that note, may I close by wishing you all

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This is a beautiful thread. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Jim

Out of sight doesn't mean out of mind...

Apropos to Wings' original post, I got a little weepy at Silent Night in church last night. I don't often go. As a kid it was a requirement. Silent Night was always a song I loved, but last night it was lead by a woman at the church with a beautiful voice. The words of the second thru 4th verses really are lovely to me. The wife caught me being weepy. Not really my nature. Just winked at her and kept singing softly.

Merry Christmas, fellas. Peace and Love.

We don't have kids of our own but we're with friends that have grand kids present, what joy to see the little ones play and get into occasional trouble. This is a great Christmas for us since the best gift I could hope for is undetectable PSA.

I have much to be thankful for. I am very thankful for all the support I have received here at hw. I am not sure I made the right decisions with my pc journey and am waiting for my 3 month psa. But it is all in gods hands today. My home was full of family today, from 2 yrs to 96yrs, and my back yard full of all our hunting dogs. Had the pleasure of getting my oldest grandson a new shotgun and we will be out hunting together in the morning with my old veteran Brittany and his young pointer. It doesn't getaway better than this. Enjoy one day at a time and thank the lord for every new day. Merry Christmas all !

Happy holidays to all you PCa survivors and your loved ones! Another year of life achieved and all is well! Here’s hoping the world continues get its act together in 2018. This year is ending very well IMHO!
Bob

Happy New Years to all... Praying for a lot of <'s (less than's) and a good quality of life for all my PCa brothers in 2018.


Now 70 y/o, it's hard to believe that I have past my 10th anniversary since DX... Darn little pesky G6... But spirits and QOL are great!

Cheers!

pasayten