i have spent about 2 years being very sick.  during this time i fought like hell not to turn into one of those that make their illness their life.  all they talk about, know and feel is about what ever it is that is making them sick.  i have a younger brother who broke his leg during basic training. he did not finish basic an has been on a pension ever since, this is almost 20 years ago. his career is being sick.  he is full of shaZam!, changes doctors like we change socks and lies about his military service.  my mother had a stroke about a month ago.  as far as strokes go it was about a  3 of 10.  i see her now doing thing i see my brother doing, making being ill the center of her world.  i am not going to put up with this.  i have done too much and gone to far with my cancer and other illness to be dragged down by this.  i give it to the spring. if we are in the same boat by then i am gone.

damn man, lotta shaZam! goin on in your life Eh?, im not in your shoes, ( cancer does run in the family tho), moms mother, both of dads parents, strokes aplenty, so  i DO know what you are dealin with. i sense some frustration?, btw what do you mean " i am gone"

moving to california or florida or somewhere else warm and away from this family crap

I know how you feel. We had a guy at school a lad called Jonty. He was a hypochondriac in a royal fashion. Claimed he had broken bones which kept him off school for months at a time, he was full of illness apparently (blamed all his bad grades on being ill) changed doctors because he said they didn't diagnose his illness' properly and wouldn't treat them. yea his only illness was hypochondriacy. But it really frustrated me the day he said he had had pneomonia and he had about i dunno a month or so off came back saying he had pneomonia, saying he couldn't do a single sport lesson for the rest of his school life when his sister told me he had fooking flu. Yet he claimed he couldn't go on some trips (only the ones he didnt like to go on) because he was going to get breathless. And the frustrating thing with people like that is you have your own problems and work through them because you don't want to be a sad old person who pretends to make their illness' worse than anything. I had rare micro plasmic pneomonia when was 15 which put me in intensive care and left me with a damage left lung. Yet im now completing physical training to join the airforce. Makes you mad at people like jonty who claimed not to be able to walk 10 ft.

it is munchausen syndrom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchausen_syndrome

Its a pain in the arse and one psychiatric illness that tries my patience because i am sure people know they are doing it deep down.

they DO know they are doing it....that is what pisses me off

Yea but dont you hate it when someone says to you look its a psychiatric disorder they dont know theyre doing it. And your just thinking course they bloody know it would be impossible not to since their trying to get attention.

agreed. btw frankie, if you are contemplating never doing chemo again, i would suggest, perhaps moving to a desert locale, ( ie phoenix or the like) my aunt, errm my great aunt, was diagnosed with breast canbcer almost 20 years ago, and was living in gelnview illinois, had decided one day to cease treatment, and her, and her husband, sold the house, and moved out to peoria az. where she lived for damn near ten years, w/o treatment. other than checkups, sadly tho she finally surrendered to her cancer, but the climate, was imho beneficial to her health

my grandparents live in peoria. well, just my grandfather now. grandma passed away a few months ago.  3 strokes in the past 11 or 12 years. 

i have been thinking of moving somewhere warm

When I moved to LA I think the warmth and sunshine is worth another 15% in health and happiness, swear to God. People here are more upbeat. Though ultimately it's all in your head, I feel better than when I was cold and wet.

Sorry to hear about your hypochondriac-munchausen family members. That sounds f%$ked up. I would get away from them and trust your instinct to do so.

Hope you get better FrankieG

thanks for all the support guys