Stage IV Good News

mom_2_3 said:

Thank You
I want to thank everyone for their well wishes and good thoughts. This site was a lifesaver for me when I was first diagnosed. I remember staying up all night as I read through post after post. In return for that support I hope that I am able to offer hope and assistance to others in the same situation.

In all honesty, I feel I have had it easy through most of this. Other than having cardiac arrest during one infusion, I came through relatively unscathed. My chemo side effects were minimal. I have been fortunate to have a most amazing sister that helped me and continues to help me even today when I have appointments by watching my children and helping me take care of my home. I remember when I was home immediately after my surgery and I was lying in my daughter's new bed in her new room. (She had just moved out of her toddler bed.) The only thing in her room was the bed and my sister literally painted the walls pink and hung the flowered wallpaper around me as I lay there. My mother-in-law has also been a bedrock of love and support for me and for our family.

Before I was diagnosed with cancer I led a very hectic life. For my job I would travel around Europe and the British Isles. I went "Down Under." I went to 48 of the 50 states on business trips. I would leave Newark on a 6pm flight to London, land in the morning there, go to a morning/early afternoon meeting and then make it back to the airport to be on a flight back to the US that night. I did this many times. When I told my mother-in-law I was pregnant with our third she had real concerns about our ability to handle it. I had never really contemplated being a stay-at-home mom.

During my treatments, however, my employer (for whom I had worked for 16 years and for whom I had been a stellar employee) let me go. I was told if I "wasn't ready to come back now, you can't come back at all." My husband and I discussed it and I couldn't really work the way I had, traveling around. So they terminated me. And that became the best thing to happen to me as I discovered how much I loved being there for my children all the time. I know I am fortunate to be in that position, but I don't think I would have, had it not been for my cancer.

So, in some ways, cancer gave me more than it took away.

mom_2_3 said:

Thank You
I want to thank everyone for their well wishes and good thoughts. This site was a lifesaver for me when I was first diagnosed. I remember staying up all night as I read through post after post. In return for that support I hope that I am able to offer hope and assistance to others in the same situation.

In all honesty, I feel I have had it easy through most of this. Other than having cardiac arrest during one infusion, I came through relatively unscathed. My chemo side effects were minimal. I have been fortunate to have a most amazing sister that helped me and continues to help me even today when I have appointments by watching my children and helping me take care of my home. I remember when I was home immediately after my surgery and I was lying in my daughter's new bed in her new room. (She had just moved out of her toddler bed.) The only thing in her room was the bed and my sister literally painted the walls pink and hung the flowered wallpaper around me as I lay there. My mother-in-law has also been a bedrock of love and support for me and for our family.

Before I was diagnosed with cancer I led a very hectic life. For my job I would travel around Europe and the British Isles. I went "Down Under." I went to 48 of the 50 states on business trips. I would leave Newark on a 6pm flight to London, land in the morning there, go to a morning/early afternoon meeting and then make it back to the airport to be on a flight back to the US that night. I did this many times. When I told my mother-in-law I was pregnant with our third she had real concerns about our ability to handle it. I had never really contemplated being a stay-at-home mom.

During my treatments, however, my employer (for whom I had worked for 16 years and for whom I had been a stellar employee) let me go. I was told if I "wasn't ready to come back now, you can't come back at all." My husband and I discussed it and I couldn't really work the way I had, traveling around. So they terminated me. And that became the best thing to happen to me as I discovered how much I loved being there for my children all the time. I know I am fortunate to be in that position, but I don't think I would have, had it not been for my cancer.

So, in some ways, cancer gave me more than it took away.