Kim and Sherrie, I am always rather uncomfortable telling someone else what to do, so please just view this as something that works for me and might for you, too.

I know in my heart and in my mind and clear down to my toes that I am cured. Absolutely and with no doubts whatsoever. I feel so terrific, and will not allow it to be any other way. Appointments with the ENT and Rad docs are social. I look forward to visiting with them and the staff people I have come to know so well. They confirm that I am doing as well as I know I am, and that makes appointment days celebration days. (Another long-held belief is that any reason for a party is a good one.)

A word about fear. If one can banish it, life is better. Fear saps one's energy and takes over one's life. In most cases, it is a terrible waste of energy. I have a strong belief in self-fulfilling prophesies -- have seen negative ones come to pass all too often. My belief that I am well and will continue to be well is the flip side of that.

I may be completely wrong and may succumb to this awful disease in a short time. But by golly, until that happens, I am not going to waste one second of the life I have left worrying about it!

That said, I do everything I can to maintain good health, and will never consider missing an appointment for a check up.

Thus ends the coping philosophy of Joanna, the sometimes mad (grin)