@merpreb Merry, I have been thinking about this ever since you first posted this here. I read the article you referenced in "Cure Today". I've personally been encouraged by your stamina (willpower?) and wonder how you persevere after 20 years. All of us, our personality characteristics, are so different from one another and you have a remarkable resilience. You may go "kicking and screaming" to each medical appointment and get on and off the table for those CTs. Anyone who believes a person should "be strong" and paste that smile on their face must still be living in the early 20th century. I'd like to think we get to have our emotions, we're allowed to be angry and irritable but we still get on with it. I remember my ex-husband saying to me one time that "You shouldn't act angry. It's not ladylike". What? What he was really saying is that HE wasn't comfortable with my anger. But that's another story and reflects his family who never expressed much of anything except superficial pleasantries.

So, willpower? Yes! A person can accept the reality of all those appointments and scans but it doesn't mean you have to like it. But you do it anyway. You go, Merry! That IS why you are still here.

Thank you, Merry, for reminding all of us what it takes to live each day and keep moving forward.