Wednesday, September 2, 2009

It's my turn for something else...

It's my turn for something else because I'm done being a cancer patient. The health issues I continue to face have nothing to do with breast cancer. My focus gets to shift away, since being cancer free for just over a year now. Yesterday I had my 3 month check-up at the cancer Agency with my Oncologist, Dr. Karen Gelmon. She is so pleased with how well I am doing, and of course so am I!!

I will continue to see her every 3 months for another year. My blood work came back as that of a healthy person, with this whole Vampire craze, my blood is now desirable; though the blood bank won't take my blood (that's okay, I've had enough of needles)

I had a reality check this visit, as a young woman not much older than myself, came out and I heard her call her Mom on her cell, as her husband sat in disbelief. She informed her Mom that she'd gotten bad news; that her cancer had spread. Her hair was so short she'd obviously just finished treatment recently and already the cancer was fighting hard to take her life. For women that have been through wh
at we have, this is the worst news, this is a terminal diagnosis. IT hit ne hard, that it so easily could have been me...but it's not.

I cling to believing that everything was caught just in time to save my life. The diagnosis, the mastectomy, the treatment, then further treatment, everything timed just right. But I'm also reminded that everything is in His time, even the time I have on this earth.

I had a great talk with a young woman recently that reminded me that we live our lives in fallen bodies, and bad and terrible things can happen in our health because of that. I inherited some bad a terrible genes that caused my breasts to attempt killing me, not once but twice. Now that they are gone, I can live free of their wrath.

I need to express something that has been sitting my heart for awhile. I need to post a message for the "well-meaning" people who have tried to advise me on what I can do to avoid getting cancer again. Things like electrical appliances, sugar substitutes, tanning beds, preservatives etc etc etc. It would be great if it could actually be that simple. The bottom line is that I inherited these cancers, my Gradndmother had breast cancer at 19 years old, the kind I had the first time and my Great-Grandmother died of cancer at 42. They were not exposed to any of the above things, and they got cancer. It happens, whether we like it or not, whether we think we can control it or not, it happens. I know that people say these things to me, out of their own fear of getting such a disease. They need to believe that if they do everything "right", this could never happen to them.

I also believe that because I am still here, doesn't mean that I have done something right and those that are no longer with us, did something wrong. None of it has to make sense, and the stress we can cause ourselves trying to make sense of it, ceriainly isn't going to help out anyone. I have found peace with it not making sense for now. I know that one day, hopefully in the very distant future, it will make sense, when I arrive at my final destination.

So we are celebrating again! We found a super cheap trip to Disneyland at the beginning of October so we are going then with the girls. We were given four three day Park-hopper passes from our last trip, that we have to use within the year. Carmelle had a very scary incident on the submarine ride, that was operator error, that could have caused her serious ingury or even death (it's a long story) so they called after we got home an offered us the passes. Since Carmelle was totally fine, thankfully, we didn't make a big deal about it, but were happy to get the passes.
So we found flights for around $120 each return from Bellingham, and a cheap hotel stay, so off we are all going:) WE all LOVE disneyland!! Especially for that price!!

Making memories that will last a lifetime!!

1 comment:

barefootmommy said...

Hey Feather ~ great post. I am among those who try everything they do to stay healthy, but I totally agree with you that we are not in control of it all. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense right! And of course, if it WAS "that easy" then I'm sure you would be doing it. Excited for you that you get to go on a little holiday with your family, those kind of things your girls will treasure forever I'm sure! It's all about the memories! :) - Simone