Wow, What a Year
As we approach the end of the year, I find myself reflecting a lot on how this year started versus where I am now. This year has felt like two wrapped up into one. It has been insane. I went from being told I had months to live in January, to having a lot of mobility issues, my Cancer continuing to progress, my kidney issues, especially what happened in Hawaii this summer, attacking the tumor in my lung, the weekly bloodwork, balancing my schedule of HBOT with doctor appointments, and of course, trying to maintain my relationship, and lastly, trying to balance our social circle, and all of the weddings happening this year. When I write it all out wow it really feels like a lot. I don’t know if I could’ve handled all that though without the support of my family and partner. Without them I don’t know if it would have been possible for me to balance all of the things that happened this year and for that I am grateful.
As I continue to reflect on all of what 2025 has held for me in my life? It really has been crazy and that even feels like an understatement. Regardless, I have an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and appreciation for all of those around me during the difficulties of the last year and a half. I can only imagine what it’s like to have experienced everything right alongside with me. It can be very difficult to try and see from the perspective of someone battling cancer, from the outside, looking in.
With life feeling like it has settled down a little bit at the end of the year it has given me the time to truly process and comprehend everything that I have been through. And what I mean by my feeling like it has slowed down a bit, is that for the first time in a year and a half I met with my Radiation oncologist and I was told I had zero new tumors in my brain. At this point, I probably had a total of over 40 or 50 in my brain, and I have undergone a series of 5 game knife radiation procedures, one every 3 months since e last July. Therefore I can’t express just how ecstatic about this news that I was. This time around for my typical check up and MRI, I did not have to do radiation, there were no new lesions that had to be radiated. For a change, I have really just been able to focus on my life, and re-prioritizing all of those around me and it has felt great.
Taking the time to express gratitude uplifts me every single day. I’m not sure where I would be without my family, my partner, my Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy team, my naturopaths, and even my team of doctors. I am very lucky to have such wonderful people in my circle that care about my success in this war against cancer. I refuse to go down easily. To wrap things up, life is hard, and not really within our control. We can only control ourselves within the turbulent tide of the world, and how we go about life every single day. If we swim against the current, we’re only making things harder for ourselves.
