8 years ago......

                                 "Breast Cancer changes you, and the change can be beautiful."

I can remember the day as if it was yesterday. It was a sunny and cool March day spent cuddled inside on the couch, wrapped in a warm, fuzzy blanket. I was still in quite a bit of pain from the surgery a few days before and was patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for the doctor to call me back to give me a new pain medicine that would hopefully make me a little more comfortable. So when the phone rang, I could feel my entire body relax knowing that some pain relief was coming my way. Not knowing that this would actually be the phone call that would bring me a pain that I would carry with me the rest of my life.

Now having had cancer a few times before, you would think that maybe it would get easier to hear. At least not knock the wind out of you. But in reality, it is the complete opposite. Hearing "you have cancer"..."again" only gets harder. I remember hanging up the phone and can honestly say I do not even know if I got new pain meds because at that point there was no medicine that was going to take away the pain that I was feeling in that moment. I sat speechless. Numb. I could feel my heart beating in my chest and wondered if it was actually possible for your heart to beat so hard that it just comes right out of your chest. But it was beating and that was comforting to me in that moment.

Breast Cancer hit me hard. It was a personal hard for me. See at that time I had already had a full hysterectomy and was in full menopause (Not fun let me tell you). So the thought that Breast Cancer could take the last of my womanhood was terrifying to me. Now if you ask me now, I would let them take anything and everything they could but I do believe that is something you have to be ready for. And at that time in my life I was not ready. My body had been through hell and back and it was just trying to survive day to day. As was my mind.

Breast Cancer invaded my body but it also lite a fire in me. Two months before I was diagnosed, I had signed up for my first Susan G Komen 3-day, 60 mile walk. I wanted to give back and I wanted to make a difference. At the time, I didn't know why I was so drawn to this particular walk but I learned very quickly why I was. Having finished my first 60 mile walk while undergoing treatment, it only gave me more strength. A strength that has gotten me to where I am today. A strength that has given me a platform to tell my story and touch lives. A strength that I am forever thankful for. A strength that I hope I had without Breast Cancer but a strength that Breast Cancer helped me see..

March 6th, 2008 is a day that I will never forget. But it is also a day that I celebrate how far I have come. Having just gotten off another round of treatment, my body is healing and building strength again. I do not know what the months ahead will hold but what I do know is that it's important to celebrate milestones. It's those milestones that give you the strength to never give up.

What Cancer Cannot Do

Cancer is so limited...
It cannot cripple love.
It cannot shatter hope.
It cannot corrode faith.
It cannot eat away peace.
It cannot destroy confidence.
It cannot kill friendship.
It cannot shut out memories.
It cannot silence courage.
It cannot reduce eternal life.
It cannot quench the Spirit.

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2016/TwinCitiesEvent2016?px=1330784&pg=personal&fr_id=1958