Feb. 15th, 2009

Hi everyone!
You know, when you are in the shoes of a cancer patient and/or survivor, I have learned a few things. Fear. I have never had fear for myself before. I had fear for my children, my brother, my parents, my cousins, my husband. aunts.. uncles... friends... etc... but never really myself. Sure I freaked out a few times going to the dentist.. but that is not fear to me. I have freaked out thinking of giving birth.. but that too.. passed.. and there was no real fear.
CANCER: The 6 letter word. Fear: the 4 letter word. In all honesty, the first time fear strikes. At least for me and many I have met on this journey.
I have a very dear friend, whom I get the pleasure of meeting in May. She is 31 and the mother of 4 beautiful children... she is also a Breast Cancer fighter. She has the same cancer as I... almost the same everything.. She has only 2 more Herceptin to go. And then.... to everyone else.. she is done. CANCER FREE... wahooooo.. to people like her and I... she is no longer "actively" treating her cancer. Yes, she has had a Mastectomy... yes she has had all the chemo her body could take... yes, she did the radiation.. yes.. she is finishing her year of herceptin.. yes... she has put in a year and a half.. every day or every week.. In treatment.. just like me.
Everyone is cheering her on. She is FINALLY Almost done... Finally!!!! Everyone is so glad! There is one exception : Her, and all us like her. The fear that we have never had for ourselves, we now know and it will never leave us. We are SO very thankful for all the treatment today, but it might not be enough. My dear friend, goes in tomorrow for what ladies like us do... we have SCANS... every three months for 2 yrs.. and then every 6 months .. for another 2 years.. then 1 time a year for the rest of our lives. They scan every part of our body. From a brain MRI to a liver scan... bone scan... and anything else in our bodies to scan. It is really easy to do for us... physically.
Can you imagine the fear. TRUE fear for the first time in our lives. I pray every day that cancer is cured in y lifetime so that I can see that FEAR leave the faces of my friends.. my sisters in cancer.
Please pray for my dear friend Diana, who starts her scans again tomorrow. These will be her first scan since her DX. She is very nervous for tomorrow.
I am sure, two months from now.. when I start my body scans.. I will be too.
God Bless all cancer patients... wow.. what I ride.......
A beautiful quote, that was just brought to my attention today by a dear lady:
Mary Jo....
"who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?" Matthew 6:27
For us, we really, really need to repeat this scripture daily!
Gods Love,
Laura