You have been through a very dramatic and challenging time Rex and I can't imagine that pain meds and concussion  went well together.

My friend J is also now cancer free after a mastectomy but has to take medication for at least five years. She says some days it seems like a bad dream and she has her life back and other times she  feels as if the cancer is just biding its time and will pop up in  another site. And she  says living with that intense fear for several months changed her -- compared to that  fear, the  staying sober issue  just faded into insignificance. She has been sober for 20 years and active in  meetings and GSO most of that time. But this experience  has  felt to her like a seismic shift.

Good news though for her and you, that makes all the difference.

My friend J is also now cancer free after a mastectomy

That's really wonderful to hear Mary. I am so happy for you both.

She says some days it seems like a bad dream and she has her life back and other times she feels as if the cancer is just biding its time and will pop up in another site

I can completely relate to that train of thought. For three months I hardly thought of anything else and then one day I get a phone call and the bad dream is over. But is it really? How many folks have been told that they were fine and would be fine only to have the disease rear it's ugly head again in 2-5 years time.

In my mind I will always be connected to this terrible, ugly, disfiguring disease or it will be connected to me.

She has been sober for 20 years and active in meetings and GSO most of that time. But this experience has felt to her like a seismic shift.

I agree completely. This is a completely different type of experience.

Please convey my best wishes to her.

Nancy, no need to admire the way I'm handling things. All of our lives are fraught in different ways. You just keep fighting the good fight and I'll keep doing the same and we'll both come out winners. Love to you.

Ok Nancy!! Feel free to admire away. lol

Thank you Jen. Yes, the last few weeks I have discovered that life can be ended qucikly and permanently.

I get up every day and take on the challenges of that day, not worrying about next month or next year. There is no use to worry about days we may never see.

Sobriety is definitely the best gift I can give myself to start each day and it is totally in my control. It doesn't matter how much or how little money I have or if I have a job or not or if I feel great or am deathly ill, sobriety is within my grasp everyday.