Using Breaths Wisely

Back on April 29 when I was first diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer I honestly did not think I would be writing a six month post diagnosis blog. Mainly I kept thinking about my mom's own diagnosis with lymphoma 28 years ago. She was diagnosed in April of '86 and gave up the battle six months later in Oct. The parallel was just too great for my mind to get around. Add to that my youngest telling me in July that she was pregnant and my mind once again was quickly transported back to July of '86 when I told my mom that I was pregnant. The parallel was just getting way too familiar.  (Not to mention that mom and I share October as a birthday month!)

However, a lot has happened in the medical world in 28 years, for which I am forever grateful. Huge advances have been made and what was once known as a death sentence is now considered a manageable disease. I have yet to totally convince myself of this but as time continues to march forward I am confident that I can leave the medical parallel behind and look at a glass a little more half full instead of empty.

What parallels that I don't want to leave behind are the facts that like my mom I am a wife, mother and grandmother and I would give anything to parallel the love of family that my mom demonstrated to the very end of her life. Nothing was more important than her family.

All of our days are limited - essentially we were pronounced terminal when we took our first breath.  As the popular saying goes, "Life isn't measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away".  The past six months has taught me to count as precious every moment and use my breaths wisely.

Thank you mom for the lessons you are still teaching me in life.



Cindi
PS - Breathing has gotten much easier. Medical update after Nov 14.