Celebrating One Year Cancer Free!
WOW! June has been like one big long celebration this year and I have enjoyed every single moment! Now, 55 and Alive To Thrive, Baby!
Some folks (like you) just keep celebrating with me and others might be tired of my celebrating. But I believe it’s essential to maintain a positive attitude on this perpetual journey of health and joyful living! I also want my journey to be one of hope for others who are still fighting, because we all deserve to be cancer free or better yet, not diagnosed in the first place!
June 15th one year ago, recovering in the hospital, I had just been told by my BadASS surgeon #TheShettyShow that the pathology results from my Ultra Low Anterior Resection Surgery (ULAR) conducted on June 13th, were clear of ALL cancer! 💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼 I was 100% cancer free! Appropriately, I cried tears of sweet joy, hugged Dr. Shetty and we even took our masks off to snap this photo. It was that momentous!
Dr. Shetty was then and continues to be a touchstone on my journey to health! 🙏🏻 Doc Z was there with tears in her eyes as well. My constant supporter and angel without wings. Hands down the best care partner one could ever ask for.
I remember saying to Dr. Shetty that I had worked so hard for this moment, and in one sentence she validated it all. She said, “I know you did!” And I had. If you’ve read my backstory you know I pulled out all the stops to get here.
“So, at a certain moment during all of this, while I understood that there was a large and very real tumor growing inside me — I completely rejected the idea that I would die. I knew I had to purposefully CHOOSE LIFE and pull out all the stops medically, mentally, spiritually, physically and metaphysically to thrive and be cured. Did I know for sure that I would succeed? No. That’s where faith and the woo-woo come in. Just like Ted Lasso says, you gotta “BELIEVE.” I knew I needed help to believe that I had a destiny that did not include dying of cancer.”
What a roller coaster ride it had been to this point.🎢 It wasn’t over, of course. I was going home with a temporary ileostomy (which would present all manner of challenges because anatomically speaking, it had to be placed right next to my pit of a belly button, but more on that shit show in another post). 😂 I had one more surgery to endure, residual side effects from treatment to manage and major adjustments to be made in the area of pooping 💩🚽🧻! But I was/am cancer free! I toasted with chicken broth and apple juice as I recall. 🥂
There is obviously so much more to this story and my journey, but for today we are going to focus on celebrating what IS! Today (and one day at a time), I am ONE YEAR IN REMISSION! ONE YEAR GLORIOUSLY CANCER FREE! HAPPY RE-BIRTHDAY TO ME! 🎂
While some may say it is bad luck to project into the future, I think of it as manifesting the future I want; so CHEERS TO MANY MORE TO COME! 🥂 To commemorate, I’ll be having a very small but infinitely meaningful celebration with dear framily. I may come back and add a photo of the festivities here later 😉!
Thank you to all who continue to celebrate each milestone on this journey! Blessings and all manner of good juju ✨✨✨✨ to all who are still fighting! You are in my heart every day and I wish for you the same outcome! XO 💋
My Life is POOPtastic! I hope yours is, too! 🦄
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