Let's Be Brave

-
The Thanksgiving holiday is over and I have to say that I enjoyed every minute of it. My niece came to stay with me to help out since my son was off of school for a whole week, so on Thanksgiving Day we spent it together eating good food and watching movies. This evening we wrapped a few presents and later this week I will get a package delivered which I can’t wait to wrap because it’s my son’s Christmas present. I think he’s gonna love it.

I am thankful that I get to spend another year of holidays with my family. Both my niece and my nephew helped me out a lot during my chemotherapy last summer and I am grateful every day for them. Support from your loved ones is the best feeling and since I didn’t get that from my significant other at the time it was nice to have people around me that did love and support me. Especially since I was still working and I felt like I didn’t have time to relax and reflect on everything that was going on. People still ask me how I could still work while going through chemo and to be honest I wasn’t sure that I could do it when I first got my diagnosis but I really didn’t have a choice. I had no paid leave available to me at the time and I was the sole provider in my household, so I did it. When it comes down to it I think anyone can do it. It’s not the ideal situation but you do what you have to do.

And here I am, one year after my last chemo and I am so happy to still be here with no evidence of disease. I don’t know for how long but I am grateful for each day that I get to spend with my son and family. I’m just going to continue to be brave and take things one day at a time. I was listening to the song “Brave” by Sara Bareilles and it reminded me to continue to say what I feel and not care so much about what other people think or say to me. I’m sure everyone has that one person in their lives that tries their best to bring you down but I really don’t have time for that. I’m keeping my loved ones close to my heart and I will try to live the rest of my life to the fullest. Happy Holidays! 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Adventures with Blood Thinners

-
Image
About a year ago on September 12, 2012 I was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism (PE) which is a blood clot in the lung. I had absolutely none of the classic symptoms of a PE. Instead my blood clot was found during one of my routine PET-CT scans to check on the progress of my cancer. For some reason people with cancer have a tendency to develop blood clots and I just happened to be one of the lucky ones that got one. I remember getting off the shuttle at the UCSF Parnassus campus and starting to walk to my sister’s flat when I noticed I had a voicemail. It was my nurse practitioner asking me to call her back because “it was kind of an emergency, but kind of not”. At this point I was really nervous thinking that maybe the cancer had spread instead of getting smaller so I called her back. She then told me that I had to go to the Emergency Room to start a regimen of blood thinners because I had a PE. My Lovenox Syringe So, I went to the ER where they gave me my first shot of Lo...
Read more

Sticks and Stones

-
Image
Recently I’ve learned a lot of things about people in my life and I am trying to make an effort to keep away from negativity. Negativity stresses me out and stress is the last thing I need. Someone recently tried to say that karma is the reason I have cancer which left me kind of in shock. I’ll admit I’m not perfect but I definitely don’t think I or anyone deserves cancer. If that’s the way karma worked then why do so many great people get sick and die young, while many evil ones get to live well into old age? The comment made me very upset at the time but now I realize that I have to make an effort not to let negativity like that get me down. Life is too short to worry about what other people think. Maybe they didn’t mean for it to sound the way it did or at least that’s what I’m hoping, but the lesson here is to really think about your words before they come out of your mouth. Another example is talking about how you know someone that died of cancer to someone that has cancer. Altho...
Read more

Hair Stylings

-
Image
Hair is important to many women and when you don’t have it; it can be pretty traumatic. I really miss having my long hair. I used to have long, curly hair. I could wear it curly or I could straighten it for a different look. People complimented me on my hair and it felt good. Unfortunately my hair fell out while I was on chemo. It fell out slowly. Every time I took a shower and combed my hair it would come out. It wasn’t noticeable but I didn’t want it to get to the point where I had bald spots and it was getting ridiculous trying to keep the shower from getting clogged so I decided to cut my hair short. I got a lovely short haircut from a friend but soon that wasn’t enough. Chemo was starting to make my head break out in a painful pimple-like rash and it hurt to wash my head. I then just had it shaved instead. I hated watching my hair fall out. Eventually I was bald without having to shave my head. The worst was when my eyebrows and eyelashes fell out. That really made me cry. ...
Read more