Hey,

The only advice I can give is to work as hard as possible to ignore that fact. I have also recently received news that I have a bone disease that will probably cause my face to become disfigured and I may go blind. It's pretty much incurable and I am here in Ontario waiting over 4 months for a second opinion because our healthcare system is horrible for wait times.

I can relate to the regrets...I knew I had this big lump on my face for about 4 years, I didn't check it out because I honestly hated my life and had no cares for my health. I honestly thought I would have killed myself or I would have died young and well before any physical manifestation of a disease could kill me. Now that I am not as depressed, that's when I find out I have this bone disease...I could have caught it earlier if I was able to value my life. So I do feel depressed when I think about that.

Anyways, I keep myself occupied. I had school to keep me occupied, I made sure I called people, took care of my family, just anything.

I avoided doing Internet searches for the operation procedures...they were all gory and I ended up fearful and I cried for almost an hour, just knowing what will be inevitable for me.

What I say to myself is that if it is meant to be, then it is meant to be. I think I have given myself up to that fact. My genetic disorder is a fluke, it's not even passed down from parents, it's a mutation when I was forming in the womb. So I am powerless against it. I have to give up that sense of control, because I have none. I can't make the waiting list for the specialist to shorten and I can be seen immediately.

So yeah, we both don't really know what will happen to us, it seems you are still waiting for the cancer to manifest itself and I am waiting to see how far this disease will deform my face. But the only thing I do is to accept how it is. Honestly, the only way I get over it is to try and live my life in the highest quality way I know...so for me it means spending time with my niece and nephew, my mom and dad. I just try to live life as normal as I know how to.