This is what Mike has been saying all week. :) Can you see anything yet? It’s kind of hard to capture in a photo, but my hair,
albeit very thin, really is noticeably longer every day. And I have stubbly
eyelashes! No brows yet – except for one brow hair that grew ½” long overnight.
You’ve had those weird hairs that appear out of nowhere, right? They just have
to go, even if you’re cheering on every little millimeter of growth.
So today Mike and I are sitting in the Cancer Survivor’s
Park in Palm Springs. There was one in San Diego, too, but we didn’t stop.
We’re on a high perch – it’s not really a bench, but the only bench in the park
was occupied by someone taking an early morning nap… The park is a very neat
idea, and, after months of physically fighting cancer, it’s nice to take a
moment and celebrate surviving.
I think I shared that within a week of finishing
chemotherapy, I started wondering about recurrence. Wondering, worrying… so I
bought a book. It talks about living in cancer’s shadow and it’s written by a
Christian woman, so the content and values were exactly what I needed. By the
way, I think she has the coolest job in the world – she gets paid to provide
moral support to cancer patients! Maybe someday.
The book was an enormous help. It has lots of stories of how
real people deal with surviving cancer. And she says “survival,” according to
the American Cancer Society or some other high profile, trustworthy source,
applies to anyone who is alive after a cancer diagnosis, whether it’s five
days, five years, or fifty years. I like that definition a lot, because I sure
don’t want to wait five years to say I’ve survived!
The story that helped me the most was about a gentleman with
a terminal diagnosis. He wasn’t supposed to live long, but, before he knew he
couldn’t be cured, he was planning on campaigning for an office. He decided to
run in spite of his diagnosis. He was elected, and he survived many years after
that. The story reminded me of my cancer treatment strategy (I called it Cancer
Defiance): I planned to continue with life as planned. School and my teens at
church would be my priorities, and I’d include whatever else I could, and only
scale back if I needed to. This gentleman reminded me that I should have the
same strategy for life after cancer. I’m going to concentrate on life, and
living it more fully, based on what I’ve learned through cancer, and trust God
with the rest. He knows if and when my cancer will return, and, if it does, He
will give me the strength to deal with it – just like He gave me what I needed
to get through all the past difficulties in my life.
Tomorrow we head back home: back to real life, including
surgery and recovery. But first, we’ll spend a couple days with some of our
favorite Canadians, making chili and watching football. Maybe this will finally
be the year I win the pool!
Grace and peace to all of you.
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