To add my 2 cents: I was a life-long smoker (loved it!!) and quit just a few months before cancer diagnosis, because of symptoms I was having. Although I'd quit, it was still deeply -- DEEPLY -- embarrassing to realize that I'd smoked all my life and now had smoker's (small cell) lung cancer. I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. But I took some deep breaths, remembering that I HAD quit, had done all I could to rectify, that smoking is not 100% death sentence (only about 15%, I'd had bad luck, that's all), was doing quite well in treatment, was finding that I had a very good attitude toward the cancer, life and death -- and, little by little, I got my pride back! Very important thing, pride. It's important to be able to hold your head up, not least because quality living, if not survival itself, depends a lot on attitude. No matter your cancer, nothing out there has say over your pride, claim it for yourself.
