Coping with Cancer During the Holidays

Nick Schultheis’s life changed forever when his wife Lucy was diagnosed with lung cancer in late 2021. “We made the decision to stay in Florida and not go back to Minnesota and deal with what we had going on with radiation treatments and all of that. So, it was a major change in how we deal with holidays,” he said.

Oncology Social Worker Melissa Sommers said patients often want to celebrate the season like normal, but they just don’t have the energy. “I encourage patients to think about the things that are most important and maybe prioritize some of the activities that they associate with the holidays, but not to try and keep up with every last thing,” said Sommers.

Give yourself grace, find time for self-care, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. “Oftentimes families feel a little helpless when their loved one has cancer and so they want to do whatever they can to help,” said Sommers.

For Schultheis, he said “My youngest son stepped up and said, I'll take care of all the decorating, I'll take care of preparing the meal…It allowed me to pay full attention to my wife Lucy and allowed Lucy not to be stressed with the things that have to happen when you host a big Christmas gathering.”

You can learn more by visiting leehealth.org/cancer.


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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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