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| Breast Cancer Awareness/Mountain Climbing Quilt |
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
This was my post from 10 years ago, on October 2, 2015:
"Home after surgery. Feeling fine. Good pain meds., I guess. :) We'll know more abt. results next week. This typing with left hand only is slow. Thank you all for prayers and kind thoughts. I feel so blessed and am so grateful. p.s. Right side is perkier than the left now!! :o ;) :D"
Ten years ago, I went for what was supposed to have been a routine mammogram. It led to a diagnosis of stage 2 breast cancer and a lumpectomy which was performed on October 2, 2015.
Today, I am still taking oral hormone therapy as a treatment and to, hopefully, prevent the cancer for recurring.
One of my dear friends, who also reads this blog, told me to envision my cancer treatments as climbing a mountain, which inspired me to make a quilt, which is pictured above. You can read the post about the quilt, here, if you like.
Today, as I rejoice in the fact that I am still in remission and still alive, ten years after my surgery, I am very keenly aware of ongoing debates about cancer screenings and women's health. I am not going into politics here, but, I am one example of a woman for whom having access to regular medical care, cancer screenings, and treatments, made a difference and it made a difference in my daughter's life, too.
Many of my readers have been there through this process with me and your prayers, positive thoughts, encouragement, kindness, and empathy have helped along the way and I thank each and every one of you for being there for me and my daughter.
Today, I feel blessed and I am grateful for:
- Being alive
- Access to health care and treatments
- Medical insurance to help cover the costs
- Skilled medical personnel, including doctors, surgeons, nurses, technicians, and support staff
- Medicines
Today's joyful activity is being alive.
How fortunate we are to have your blog and to be reminded that life is for living, in hard times and in good ones!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bushlady, for your prayers from the very beginning of my diagnosis and for being there for me.
DeleteI am so happy that you are here with us 10 years later. May there be decades and decades more.
ReplyDeleteThank you, June. :)
DeleteThis is June.
ReplyDeleteThank you, June. I appreciate you letting me know that it was you. :)
DeleteI wasn't reading your blog ten years ago, but I am very glad that it is here for me to read today. Blessings, Bless!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary. I'm very glad to be here and blogging, ten years later! :)
DeleteWe rejoice with you, Bless , so thrilled that we can celebrate a decade since the op
ReplyDeleteThank you, Angela and Bob. I remember contacting you about a prayer you had posted on your blog and you sending me another prayer, as well. I still say both prayers when I say my daily prayers.
DeleteI am so glad that you were able to fight the cancer and have had a decade of no return of it!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kezzie. :)
DeleteVery many congratulations on your ten years! And here's to your health for the next. The quilt is quite a work of art, and very enticing. I like your design. I wondered why I didn't recognise it - I must have begun reading after 2019. At one point I started reading from the very beginning but i lost my place and never managed to get back to it. Maybe something for the future. I'm sure there are other important milestones that I missed.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lady Ella. I know you started reading the blog from the very beginning, just as I started reading your Henro blog from the beginning, but, we both stopped for various reasons and haven't got back to reading the rest. Maybe we'll get caught up one of these days. :)
DeleteI am so thankful for your healing and your good health since then. That quilt is amazing. It is such a beautiful reminder of that HUGE mountain you climbed! And you are right...having access to good and regular medical care is so important.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mandy. I appreciate each and every day, no matter what. :)
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