The lack of symptoms before a cancer diagnosis is not that unusual, unfortunately. My husband had a mild sore throat and it turned out to be stage 4. We were where you are now a year ago and I desperately wanted that magic answer. It took me a long time to hear what people were telling me - that no one can give you absolute guarantees.

The good news is that once you get thru the shock stage, you do settle into the new reality. If you are being told this is treatable and there's a good chance of a cure then that's based on what those doctors have seen in their clinical practice with similar situations. It's also the best answer you are going to get.

Everyone is afraid of the cancer coming back. There is not one survivor I know that doesn't think about it. The key is to find a context that you can live with on a day to day basis. That fear was so raw and constant in the beginning that it dominated my every waking moment. Now it comes and goes and it's balanced against the good moments that we are still having.

The thing is it will bother you until it doesn't anymore. It's personal and there's no shortcut to feeling your own pain at a situation that sucks. Try not to get ahead of whatever information that you have at the moment and pace yourself for a long haul. Survival is a process and there are times when you'll just backslide into a big old pity party. So what. The important thing is to keep going. If you do that the rest sort of falls into place.

Regards JoAnne