Practicing what I preach, I got through the treatment and went back to my Real Life and all the plans thereof without looking back. I am not planning for a reoccurrence. It doesn't make sense to me, at this point when I am healthy, to make plans as though I will not be for many more years. Yes, I go for the regular checkups. Beyond that, however, I will not give cancer any more time in my life. It may come back, or I may get another kind, but I truly believe that to spend any of the healthy time I have worrying about what might happen is a waste. We never plan to be run over by a bus, but lots of people are. Maybe the odds for that are a little less, but the principle is the same. Live for today, plan for tomorrow. I told the ENT/oral surgeon who is presently working on me that I am going to live to be 87. He looked me right in the eye and said "That's all?" So go right ahead with your retirement planning -- you may well live to enjoy it!
Joanna, who takes the saying "make hay while the sun shines" as a directive