You just never know...

Recently a friend of a friend was diagnosed with Stage IV renal carcinoma. She went from doing bicycle races (road & mountain) one week, to being hospitalized after having surgery to remove a kidney, part of her spine, and some other tumors. She's in her 30s or 40s with no previous symptoms or family history. She was just suddenly struck with this horrible disease. My friend tells me she's in good spirits, but it just has to be horrible for her. Her bicycle team/club has made decals for their bikes that say "I ride for Dee" as a show of support for her.

Those decals may not seem like much to those who put them on their bikes, but coming from my perspective, things like that mean a tremendous amount. Being told by friends that you're an inspiration gives you the courage to continue fighting. Knowing that someone else has used your example of fighting to keep themselves going through their own struggles is humbling. While they gain strength from your struggle, you gain strength from their choice of you as inspiration. Its a wonderful circle of inspiration! I hope Dee gets the same courage from her team's support as I have from the various people who've done something similar for me.

Then you have my mom. If you recall she's a 5 year breast cancer survivor (she's the one I inherited mine from). She had a bilateral mastectomy with TRAM flap reconstruction. The surgery was a very long procedure (16 hours), but successful. She did chemotherapy too. She had a worse time with her chemo than I did, but she survived. Well, the other day she went to her regularly scheduled oncology appointment. The oncologist found a lump on her chest wall. With our history, she was terrified it was cancer again. I went with her to meet with a surgeon who will probably do a biopsy. He wanted to remove the whole lump, but we know from speaking with MD Anderson that they typically like to keep the lumps in so they can observe them during treatment. We got the surgeon to say he'd speak to mom's team in Houston & left. Mom had already been pro-active enough to send a secure email to her breast surgeon in Houston. Eventually, she ended up speaking with the breast surgeon's nurse on the phone. That phone call was full of great news. The doctors there are probably 90% convinced that her lump is actually just fat necrosis - a fairly common occurance with the type of reconstruction my mom had. Instead of a biopsy, they recommend an ultrasound. Since ultrasounds are *much* less invasive, that is a great alternative. I'm not sure when the ultrasound will be scheduled, but we're praying for good results!

Anyway, it just goes to show that you never know what life is going to hand you. You have to roll with the punches & rely on God to take care of you. He has a plan, its just that most of the time we don't understand it. Its also important to tell those you love and admire how you feel because you never know when something could take that ability away from you. God bless!