Cancer has taught me to be appreciative of so many things.

Oh, I’ve talked about it. I’ve lived it. I feared it. I remember it. But I’ve never written about it. I have had lung cancer. Twice. The first time in my right lung was in 1987. I felt as if I was walking in someone else’s shoes. I do know that you would not want to have walked in mine.

I have not had an easy life but I’ve been able to rise above it all. I still have love and compassion.

I lucked out because the cancer had not spread. So, I did not need further treatment at the time. However, six weeks later, my husband was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Yes, we smoked, but I do believe we had been exposed to something else too. Too much of a coincidence that we were both diagnosed within weeks. We were both 48. He was buried the following year. Unfortunately, the diagnosis of my cancer came one week after returning from one of my brother’s burial in Texas. He was 51 and died of a brain aneurysm. This was one month after my oldest brother died of lung cancer. He was 53. I remember thinking that I knew “into every life a little rain would fall,” however, all I could think was I was in a hurricane. I lived cancer-free for the next twenty something years and raised my children who all went on to post-graduate degrees.

After my retirement in 2005, I moved almost immediately to Burbank to be near my youngest. Within one year I was in surgery again here in Burbank for a suspected cancerous lesion on my left lung. Pathology said it was benign. However, in the next year, I was diagnosed and scheduled for surgery for a cancerous lesion at the same site that was supposedly benign the previous year. When I was taken from the ICU to a private room, one of the doctors told me I had about six months to live because the surgeon couldn’t get all of the tumor. Needless to say, I put all my affairs in order and went on to further treatment. The treatment consisted of six months chemotherapy and radiation therapy. How did I feel emotionally? I will be truthful, sure I had some fear but by the Grace of God, I was totally accepting and truly lived each day at a time.

It’s now nearing the end of 2010, and I am still cancer-free. For how long, I don’t know and I don’t worry about it. I did learn that having hair is very important to me and your head gets cold without having hair! I try to do things that I love and be with people who add to my life. I’ve also learned that because life is so short, I don’t have time to give in to bad friendships or things that take all my energy. I am more aware of the good in people but I can not tolerate unkindness. I sometimes lose patience with others. I get angry when I think something is not right. This is something I am still working on. But cancer has taught me to be appreciative of so many things that I feel I have been truly, truly blessed.