Do the Holidays lift or lower your mood? (Especially since Dx)

Seems like a good topic to discuss for this time of year.

As individuals we certainly vary in how we react to the Holidays (meaning primarily Thanksgiving and Christmas). Some of us are enthralled by the color, music, decorations and festive spirit. Others of us are put off by what we see as the excess, commercialization, and noise.

No right way to be on this issue. It depends too much on who we are as individuals and what our values have been in the past and are now.

But I am curious to learn what effect having had a PCa Dx in particular may have had on your attitude in general toward things like the Holidays. Has the Dx increased your appreciation for what they mean in your lives, or are the Holidays now, post-diagnosis, less happy events for you than they were before your PCa journey began?

Of course the Dx is such a life changing event in general that inevitably it alters one's thinking about life and what it offers. But has the experience of a Dx made any difference in how much you now enjoy (or not) the Holidays?

No right or wrong answers here, only what's right for you.

Please vote in the poll above and of course do post any thoughts you have on the matter.

No change, same as always.

By the time my first Christmas rolled around many months had passed since my PC diagnosis. By that time I was very well on my way to becoming a learned, savvy layperson on the natural history of PC, and so I understood that my low-end (3+4) intermediate-risk case posed virtually no long-term risk to my longevity...so same as always.

No change... I'm happy to be alive and can't wait for the holidays to be over.

All my nieces and nephews are all teenagers and older so they get cash to buy what they want..

No change for me.

Well, except for the fact that I and my two brothers (both treated for PC) will spend a few minutes exchanging PSA numbers and news of the latest post treatment side effects...

Andrew

Lift it. Many things in life seem more important and Holidays, family, friends and everything that goes with them are more intense feeling.

The holidays always lift my spirits but they are slightly thin soup this year because we are sharing our grown kids with other in-laws and won't be seeing much of our kids and grands during the holidays this year. Next year it will be our turn again and the holidays will be a bit more festive.

As to how my dx has affected the holidays, well, the fist year after I was diagnosed (before my surgery) I was a nervous wreck and that year the holidays lifted my mood by a huge amount but, since my mood started out so low, I can't say it was a stand-out Christmas, but still there was lots of family time that year and the holidays helped. This year, I have used a certain amount of our available time-off on GFMPH activities which leaves us with less time to scrabble for crumbs of time with the kids and the grands. We are, mind you, vastly better off for the GFMPH trips but it has meant scaling back the holidays just a bit more. Still all good, though...

Wanted to add, as I had forgotten.

2008 Christmas - no memory, ,was in early stages of recovery from my open surgery
2009 Christmas - was recovering from salvage radiation, don't hardly remember Christmas
2010 Christmas - was having major recovery from Bladder by-pass surgery, no memory of Christmas

It was only in 2011 and 2012, that I can remember those two Christmases.

Hoping this year, first time in 5 years I didn't have to have a surgery, I will remember and take delight in this one.

Though for the first time ever, my youngest son and his fiancé are going to be gone all Christmas. He's going to SF to visit his future in-laws out in CA. He's never missed a Christmas at home before.

But my daughter, from Charleston, will be here.

David

LIFT LIFT LIFT

Since I was diagnosed at the same time my wife was being treated for her second bout of breast cancer I decided that everything I do I will find a way to enjoy. Since I have been a notorious workaholic and rarely took more than a couple days off and called it a vacation, my first decision was that every weekend would be a vacation. I start friday afternoon with a martini and either a date night with Lee or a sleepover with several of our grandkids.

This expanded to holidays and I look forward to them much more than before. We always celebrate with dear friends who also have been through cancer at an even younger age than us. Their two daughters are counted as our granddaughters as they have never known their biological grandparents.

In short, I use every opportunity to celebrate life. I learned long ago that feeling bad will never make me feel better.

This has been strengthened since I met brother Todd1963. I have never seen anyone that lives every minute of every day better than he and Mandy. They are great mentors.