CANCER AWARENESS

Yes, I am a cancer survivor. I share with you to offer hope, and to remind you to self-check or have your doctor check you. (This goes for male and female)

I was visiting my doctor for a prenatal check-up. He found an abnormal cell. I was only 6 weeks pregnant. His advice was not to disturb the pregnancy, just wait and watch. He watched closely.

After my son was born, we had to wait another 6 weeks to get a true test. The wait became longer and longer and when my son was almost a year old I received a call with the news that the cancer was stage 4 and I needed surgery immediately.

As I lay in the hospital bed the night before the surgery, my only thought was 'I have to live to raise my sons'. I was determined to come out with a clean bill of health. It was a difficult recovery. I had an asthma attack on the table. The anesthesia back up into my lungs. I was in the hospital eleven days, but...I came home cancer free.

On my fifth year without a recurrence, I celebrated. 

On my sixth year I had a bleed, followed by more biopsies. Waiting for the results was agonizing. My sons were not 'raised' yet and I wasn't about to give up. The last call I received was the news I wanted, "not a recurrence, just a small tear from lifting". I celebrated again.

This year I celebrated my FORTY-SECOND year without cancer.
My boys are men with families of their own. By the grace of God and my will to live, I lived to raise them, and well beyond....