A Year in the LIfe of a Cancer Survivor

The last year has been harder than I thought it was going to be.

I thought that once my chemo, surgery, and radiation were done life would be a walk in the park.

A little over a month after my treatments were done a friend passed away. We'd known each other for years and had reconnected when we both were doing cancer treatments in the same centre. She started hers a month after mine. It was a real blow to have her leave me and to see her husband and three daughters devastated by her passing. I think about her every day.

I had an ultra-sound just before Christmas because I found a lump on my collar bone. There was definitely something there so I had a biopsy shortly after the new year. Not the way I wanted to bring the New Year in. Terrifying how all my fears were brought back until I heard the magic words it's nothing just an angry lymph node. 

Smooth sailing until April when I went for my MRI. I got a call from the Cancer Clinic after that one. They had found lumps in my other breast. I have to tell you, I went to pieces. I cried for three days until I went to get the biopsy. They did a second look ultra-sound, a very thorough one, and sent me home without doing a biopsy. The lumps looked too uniform and round to be the dreaded cancer he figured. I pray to God that he is right or I'm sitting here right now oblivious to the fact that I'm slowly dying.

There have been some downs but there have also been amazing ups this year too. I went to Victoria BC with my sister. I've watched my daughters thrive and grow. My green house is bursting with life. I'm running again and feeling fitter and healthier than I have in a long time. I'll be celebrating my 40th birthday soon and I'm grateful to see it. There's so many things worse than turning 40. How about never turning 40. There are so many miracles and wonders if I just take the time to look for them and I'm thankful for the opportunity to do just that.


A hummingbird visited me on the anniversary of my friend's death and I like to think that was a sign from her telling me she thinks of me too.