A Message of Hope

On December 30th, I am getting the works done at CHI Bergan Mercy. I have four appointments that morning…one for blood work, one for a Lupron shot (cue huge needle), one for a Zometa infusion via my port (this is to “seal” my bones from further mets and I get it every 3 months) and then my 3 month scans of my chest, abdomen, and pelvis. I have had good results thus far, but I literally live scan to scan, waiting for the other shoe to drop. I have changed my life quite a bit since the last scan…participating in 6 cardio classes a week. I just don’t know how my cancer is going to react to that. It seems like it would be a good thing…but I don’t know. So I am a little more nervous about these scans.

I am a member of a chronic cancer support group through A Time To Heal. We meet every other week and have only been meeting via zoom for the last couple of years. These people are such an inspiration. They are all stage IV cancer and have been surviving and thriving with their cancer for years. It was exactly what I needed – this group of wonderful men and women. Some of the members have been around since the group was founded in 2010…which is inspiring. We have 3 moderators who are either former oncology nurses or psychologists. They are more like friends and a part of the group though. Those three moderators are retiring this month…so it will be a whole new atmosphere in January as our group will be merged with another group as well. The outgoing moderators went to each of our homes and left a box on our doors. We opened them together during our last zoom meeting together last week. We each got a beautiful mug filled with candy. I loved the message on the mug so much that I wanted to share it with you. Whenever I start to get overly anxious about my upcoming scans and it threatens to overshadow my Christmas season, I glance at this mug and adjust my attitude. I think that you don’t have to have stage IV cancer to get a good message from this mug – so I am sharing it with you all!