Christmas Reflections

The sacred and simple story of the Nativity outshines all of the glitter and glitz of the season. I testify that the miracle of the Christ child's birth and life can bring blessings, hope, and peace. May we all feel the impact of his life in ours as we celebrate this holiday season. Merry Christmas!!!

Nice and Normal

I know that tandem stem cell transplants and chemotherapy have saved my life... and I feel so blessed to live in a time when good medical treatments are available for this disease. I would most likely not be alive today without them. These medical advancements have ridden my body of any visible signs of myeloma, but they have also left much peripheral damage. A weakened body and immune system, some neuropathy, and the various side effects I have had to deal with............But what I really am trying to say is that..............

One of the miracles in this crazy life I have endured through all of this is to see and feel my body (as well as my mind and spirit) begin to heal. Isn’t it amazing and wonderful how the human body functions? How our bodies are generating new growth every minute? How my body can grow stronger everyday?

After over two years of transplants, transfusions, and treatments, I have finally begun to feel normal!!! I am getting some energy! I am going days without pain! I can wake up in the morning and have a normal day!! Cancer does not weigh on my mind every waking minute.

I can clean my house, play with my precious grandaughter, do laundry, run errands, and fix dinner all in the same day!!

I have always been thankful for the big, exciting, and eventful days. Those days to capture in pictures and scrapbooks... Graduations and weddings. Birthdays and the birth day of my Grandchild. I am so grateful for those. They have kept me going. They have given me steps and goals and notes on my calendar to look forward to.

And now my “life tutor”--cancer has taught me to appreciate the normal, ordinary days that build me and shape me and bless me.