What a Year!

I can't believe the past year is coming to a close, and the new year is upon us. What a crazy year we have had! This Christmas to me is one of the most special and meaningful. After the events of the past year, I now know that if you have your health you have a lot. For those of us that are in good health we should be forever grateful, and sensitive to those who are not. Christmas time always stirs up so many emotions within us, but I think the emotion that mostly fills my heart is an overwhelming sense of being thankful. I am so thankful for what God has done in my life this past year with His divine intervention. In celebration of the Christmas season I have a renewal of the amazing event of our Savior's birth. I know so many who have lost loved ones or are going through tremendous amounts of suffering, sickness, and pain. The Christmas season can be so painful for some. However great our suffering may be I truly believe our suffering has purpose and it is not meaningless. If the Savior of the world left His throne to be born in a barn, lived a life full of suffering and pain, and ultimately was murdered on a cross to bring salvation to the world, then what we are faced with to endure here on earth has to have some type of purpose and meaning. If God himself experienced great suffering, why should we expect anything different? No matter how cheesy the saying, "Jesus is the reason for the season," may sound after the rough year I have experienced I know this is true!

Summer Blockbusters Make Me Crazy!

If you are a fan of things exploding and kid movies you probably are not going to like my post. However, I have to say that the list of movies that have come out this summer are driving me over the edge. If it doesn't have explosions, robots, aliens, little blue people, talking animals, or cars then it is just not a summer hit. Right? Think about it, Cowboys & Aliens, Cars, Smurfs, Caption America, Green Lantern, Transformers, Super 8, Harry Potter and lets not forget this weeks release Planet of the Apes. Now I know most summer movies are like this, and lets face it if the movie doesn't have these elements then it is not coming to a theatre near me. So those of you that have more options you better embrace it!

The other night we watched A Streetcar Named Desire, it stars Marlon Brando a.k.a. the Godfather, and Vivien Leigh a.k.a Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind, who won an Oscar for both of these performances. I sat there through the whole movie and was glued to the T.V. This movie is 60 years old, and it has been the best movie I have seen all summer. Now, I am warning you it is not a fuzzy good feeling movie. However, it is going on my favorite movie list. So, if you are in need of a break from all the explosions and aliens rent it!

Doctor Visits, Radioactive Pill, & Body Scan

I have to admit that before this whole issue of thyroid cancer I had no idea where your thyroid was or what it did. I now know a lot. Thyroid cancer is treated differently than other forms of cancer. When the biopsy shows cancer, they take your whole thyroid and some lymph nodes. Because our thyroid is in such a sensitive area, it lays right over our windpipe doctors can not take all the tissue. So after you have surgery you take a radioactive iodine pill, and it sends radiation throughout your whole body. It also kills any remaining part of your thyroid in case there is any cancer cells left, and also to make sure the cancer never comes back. Crazy? Weird? Yes! My thoughts exactly.

I took my radioactive iodine pill on July 20th, and had to be secluded in our back guest room for two days because I was putting off radiation. Crazy I know. What the pill is doing is basically nuking the remaining tissue of your thyroid. I told people I might as well have stuck my head in a microwave.

After about a week you have to have a body scan, and the scan will show where the radiation went in your body. If it goes somewhere else besides your neck, like say a big part of it goes to the lungs there is a good chance you have cancer cells in your lungs.

I got my body scan on Tuesday, and I got a good report. All my radiation was in my neck and no where else. I don't have to go back to the doctor until October. I was so excited!

True Heroes Are Victims

My little upset with cancer has given me a huge dose of reality. For the past three months I have set in waiting rooms among other cancer patients. My situation is not near as devastating as most cases. I have had older family members fall to cancer and even some members in our small community have battled and some have even lost, but I have never understood the true effects until now.

Victims of this earth shattering disease are true heroes. These are the people who stare death in the face and fight back with all they got. They are the ones who make numerous trips to the doctor and sit and wait for a biopsy, blood test, diagnosis, and a game plan. They are the ones who go under the knife and are left with scars or battle wounds to remind them of their illness. They are the ones who undergo putting poison a.k.a. chemo into their bodies, only to face vomiting, hair loss, and a tremendous amount of weightless. Women have their breast removed and reconstructed. Men and women both undergo having their head shaved. People undergo having their skull sawed into to remove brain tumors.

Some undergo all of this and are left with no hope and still no cure. They go home to live the rest of their life that is left. They are the ones who in their last days know that once they crawl into bed, chances are they are not ever going to get out of it.

I have sat among the most courageous, brave, and inspirational people I have ever come in contact with. How do they do it? They don't have a choice. They fight and they fight hard. So if you ever need a good dose of reality visit a cancer center and watch the people who come in, go out, and fight.

The Hunger Games

Okay I may be a little late on this, but move over Bella Swan there is a new girl in town and her name is Katniss Everdeen. I am telling you right now, if you have not read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins you are missing out! I read these books in a week. Okay I have to admit I teared up when I finished the last book. Me, who is not a sappy person! What is wrong with me? Put these books on your to read list!

The "C" Word

I have something to confess. I have not told many people. Before I do however, this post is not about wanting sympathy. It is not about poor pitiful me! There are others who have been, are going through, and will go through worse. This is about what He has done. Back in May I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I had a tumor about the size of a golfball. One biopsy and two surgeries later doctors feel they have gotten it all. They better have, they took my whole thyroid and 11 lymph nodes! However, I do have to go through hopefully just one treatment of radioactive iodine. This is just a pill that I will swallow and radiation will go through my body and kill any remaining cells that may be left. I will be scanned about a week after the treatment. Weird I know, but this is how they treat thyroid cancer.

No one wants to get the phone call with the other person on the end of the phone saying, "Your tumor is cancer." CANCER, such a scary word that we don't take to well. I mean I am 27 years old. Who gets cancer that young? Me! I have learned that with just the ringing of a telephone and by picking it up and saying, "Hello" your world can be turned inside out. I would have liked to have said, "Oh I took it with a grain of salt. I didn't panic or freak out." However, this is not the case. I am being honest here. I have learned that in our deepest darkest moments when we do get terrible life shattering news, HE is the one who calls us up and out from our pit of desperation. He is literally the one that carries us to the operating table and guides the surgeons hand.

See here is the cool thing. It gets even better! As many of you know we are in the processing of adopting. I had to get a physical from my doctor for the adoption. During the physical is when my doctor found the tumor in my thyroid. Here I am thinking I am going to adopt and save a child's life, when in reality a child that may not even be born yet has already saved mine. Humbling? I think so!

More updates to come.