Christmas brings out every emotion from elation to joy to sadness to worry.This time of year can make the simplest situations overwhelming so it is really important to make sure look out for ourselves. It can really help to to focus on something positive.
What are your hints and tips for each other at this time of year?
How will you be spending Christmas this year share your ideas to help others through this festive period and to look forward to 2023.
As the slight worry of what you are suffering…diagnosis etc wanes a little and you think more.
I love Christmas and will be spending it at my daughters with family and grandchildren
With ET the fatigue is my biggest gripe but i do believe some of that is in the mind
I am not really religious but love Churches and will be attending Xmas Eve Mass this year.
With Essential Thrombocythemia i feel a little bit wrong asking for advice and chatting to folk because other blood Cancers and bone disorders are more serious
Think we all are guilty of feeling like that .
I love life…am only 60 …the ew 50!
Although it can be tough i still work…drive an HGV lorry for a living.
Chemo daily just feels like another vitamin pill now…but there are times that remind me what i have and why i feel pretty tired most days
This has taken a big toll on my lovely wife also …but we are getting there and plan to make sure we have a great Christmas
My main advice to others who are having similar issues is to talk of course…on a more practical level my biggest advice is to just concentrate getting through the day …on those bad days.
Apologies for the muddled message…and hope you and all the other Forum helpers and people with illness have a good festive period.
Having spent the past 2 Christmas’ alone with just my hubby (was going through chemo Dec 2020 and then shielding in Dec 2021 as no antibodies from first 3 jabs).
Having recently created some antibodies with jabs 5 and 6, we’re taking baby steps back to a bit more social interaction , so plan on spending Christmas Day inside with my in-laws (they are in their nineties , one of them housebound with carers in twice a day). We’ll be taking our hepa filter with us /opening the windows to get the ventilation going but we’re all really looking forward to finally having Christmas Dinner together this year
Am excited that our local church is also having carols outside in the church car park so plan on going to that (haven’t been inside a church in 3 years due to Covid risk). Also many cathedrals are showing their Carol services online if anyone wants a sing along from their sofa.
Then meeting up with friends after Christmas for a yomp round a National Trust grounds and have a “hot” picnic together.
Hi
2022 has been my .’annus horibilis’. My husband went into hospital in January was there for 6 months, then he had 3 months in a care home, a diagnosis of vascular dementia has just been confirmed but he is home now and functioning fairly well so far. I had 6 weeks in hospital 10 days in intensive care with 4 nurses around my bed constantly, I thought I was going to die. I had a month in a care home to convalesce and finally made it home, only to find 4 months later that medication prescribed by hospital was poisoning me, causing my hair to die and break off.
It has been quite a battle throughout the year, to get GP appointments, necessary because haematologists are solely interested in your blood. Today during my 3 monthly telephone consultation, I learned that the next consultation will be a letter from them after I have had a blood test. They don’t want to see or speak to me now, any more. I feel somewhat abandoned and adrift in my Polycythaemia vera (PV) blood cancer with an E mail to my haematologist nurse as my only life buoy ring but sometimes even she is absent, Is it an age thing I wonder, I am 79, am I no longer worthy of care and attention, must I go quietly into the dark?
No, I shall count my blessings, I have my mind as yet unclouded, two great children and two lovely granddaughters. I can still just about manage to get shaky fingers to keyboard and also have ability to plan my garden for 2023. A happy Christmas to all my fellow sufferers/fellow fighters in the battle for health, let’s look forward to 2023 we have made it so far, we just need to keep going forward. Marylin
That sounds a fabulous plan @CaroleCW. I am also looking forward to Christmas dinner this year with my husband testing positive for covid on Christmas Day last year 2021 festive period was a wash out.
Wishing you a wonderful time with your family.
Hello @Marylin
What a tough 2022 you have had but what a wonderful spirit you have. I take my hat off to you.
I think that this is a wonderful time of the year to plan the garden . I have an allotment, this time of the year when the beds are empty I can plan to move things around and decide what’s going to go where and look forward to the days when I can plant the seeds and watch them grow. I already have some little shoots on my sweet peas in my green house.
I hope that 2023 brings you a better year. Best wishes for the festivities.
What an incredibly tough year for you and your husband , so good that you can spend the end of the year together at home. Enjoy planning your garden and all the best for a calmer 2023 for you