sue - survivor's guilt?

Hi I'm  struggling to get my head around the past year . In may after a month my dear friend passed away from blood cancer while caring for him I lost my voice and my husband was on at me to see a doctor after 9 week I gave in and was sent straight to hospital for camera up nose and down throat , the doc found a patch on my larynx so sent me for chest x ray 4 week later I got a call from my GPS to say the hospital had only just got in touch to say they had found something on my lung so after numerous cttages scans and a pet cttages scan I was told it was cancer which at the time was a shock but I took it really well and was prepared for a fight , they said I would need a lobectomy on left lung and was arranging this when I caught legionaires and was very ill after I recovered I had my upper left lung removed in September and struggled for short time getting my breathing back to 'normall' but seem to OK apart from getting really tired and getting out of breath on exertion it was a carcinoid tumour and had not spread so really good news but for some reason the past month iv really strugled with constantly thinking about it and feeling very down has anybody else suffered from this and also a friend passed away recently from lung cancer and I feel a sort of guilt about surviving is this normal thankyou x

  • Hi ,Please don't feel guilty about surviving your friend ,you too have been on a difficult journey which has taken courage .I had a lobectomy 2015 for lung cancer it takes time to get over such invasive surgery and to rebuild your own confidence ,your body has been altered and that takes time to get used to .Be kind to yourself and allow yourself to enjoy life all be it different .I started doing regular exercise which helped me take back control of my life in small ways ,I am not an athlete so when I do exercise its in small ways usually swimming ,yoga or low key low energy classes which suit me .I also paint which takes me away from gloomy places in m mind.I do get tired since treatment but I don't fight it you have just got to keep enjoying the little things.I hope that helps take care and apologies if this sounds like a lecture .Diane