4 years cancer free!

-
On Sunday, June 10th - I became a 4 year cancer survivor. I know there are several ways to calculate your survivor anniversary. Some people count it from the day you hear those horrible words "you have cancer", others from the day they found the lump, or had a scan. Those few weeks before my initial surgery were hazy fear filled days. If I tried I could probably go back and pinpoint the exact date, but instead I count mine from my surgery date, June 10th, 2008. That was the day that Dr. Whitworth was able to remove all the cancer from my body. I am so thankful to all my doctors and their medical teams. They have done a fabulous job of taking care of me, recommending the best treatments for my specific type of cancer (triple negative), counseling me on genetic testing and helping put me back together after the chemo was complete. Yes I have plenty of scars and those serve as a daily reminder of the big C, but I am also reminded that these scars have made me who I am today.
I will be forever grateful to everyone who has helped me, and continues to help me along my journey, but especially those who were by my side during that first very hard year.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living in Music City

-
Image
Nashville is a great city. Sometimes I take for granted what a wonderful city we live in, until I am talking to someone who is newer to our area. The cost of living is decent, traffic isn't too bad, people are kind and generous and you can see all types of live music pretty much any night of the week. My friend Katherine  and her daughter Macie enjoy going to the Opry. The other night they saw Dolly Parton and Taylor Swift for $40. Where else can you do that?! I think one of the reasons many celebrities like to live here is because no one really bothers them. They can shop, dine and head to the movies without being hounded by the paparazzi. Not that we don't notice when we see Nicole and Keith at the coffee shop, or Sheryl Crow at the store but we southerners are polite and leave them alone.   I was working on my box for our city swap and decided to head downtown to get some official music city souvenirs. I had a great day playing tourist while looking for the perfect items t
Read more

Dan Cole - American Hero

-
Image
We got a call Saturday night that you never want to get. My brother in law Dan had been killed in a flight accident. Dan has been a pilot and mechanic for the National Guard for about 20 years. Dan loved flying and knew his helicopters inside and out. Dan has served our country in Kosovo and Iraq. I guess when he came home from those tours we all just breathed a sigh of relief, but as we all know too well - there are no guarantees in this life. Dan is a few years younger than me, but I've known him all my life. He grew up on Hill street in Henderson; I grew up on North.  Our lives, like so many in a small town were always intertwined. We went to school, summer camp and church together and our parent's are good friends. We used to laugh about how Bryan and Deanna went away to college to meet new people and broaden their horizons...and both ended up marrying "townies". Dan was a great guy. He proudly loved and served his country, but he also loved and served his fe
Read more

Chemo #5

-
Chemo #5 is over and it all went well. My counts are down as expected, but I'm feeling pretty well. I'll have to take it easy the next few days but usually by Mondays I'm feeling stronger again. Lori took me to chemo, then we went to Bongo Java for lunch. I then came home and took a 2 hr nap. I got to have dinner with my friends Anna and Sarah tonight, it sure was good to get to see them again. We all worked together at Healthways years ago. I start back to work on Monday. I'm looking forward to being back with my friends. I hope they have patience with my "chemo brain" tendencies. I actually looked it up, because it has been frustrating for me. Mayo clinic had an article on it, so I guess I'm not imagining it. Of course I didn't have the best memory before all this began. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cancer-treatment/CA00044 Next week I'll be at #6 and half way through with treatments! Keep those prayers going, they are keeping me strong an
Read more