Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Goodbye.. part1


   Wow oh wow has this been a long time coming. I realize that last post I wrote was almost four months ago and I’ve been keeping you guys hanging this whole time. Apologies. Part of my reluctance in posting is due to the fact that I always intended for this post to be my final one. I created this blog to help me keep in touch with friends and document my experience while fighting cancer. I’m done with that now, so there’s really no more reason to keep this going. Still, goodbyes are sad and in some strange way I’m kind of reluctant to definitively close this chapter of my life. So I’ll make you guys a deal: there will be no frequent posting, but if something comes up that is cancer-related and crucial to my life I will not hesitate to dust off the keyboard and tell you all about it.  (This is the “we can still be friends” of blog-breakups.) Ok let’s get to the important stuff…

My home/prison for the next 24 months
   I GOT IN TO DUKE!!!!! I found out less than a week after I went for my interview, so I’ve already gotten to enjoy this feeling for a few months. Honestly, I think I was starting to take it for granted a bit until I re-read my last post and was reminded of how much it means to me. I’ll be in Durham, North Carolina for a pretty intense two-year program, but at the end of it I’ll be in my dream job. How awesome is that?!? It just gets better: one of my good friends from work got into the same program, so I’ll get to be roomies with Ms.Dana Riker. I bet this won’t really totally sink in ‘till I’m packing up a U-Haul and driving south but it’s gotta be the second best news I’ve received in the last few months. Why second best? Well…
    BECAUSE THE BEST NEWS IS THAT I AM CANCER-FREE AND IN REMISSION!!!! Yes, I realize that’s the second paragraph in a row to start with all caps but you can just go ahead and shut up about that because I am CANCER-FREE and it’s simply impossible to write in lowercase :-D Oh happy day!!! Happy faces galore!!! I’m in complete remission, which means that there are absolutely no signs or symptoms to indicate that there is any more cancer in my body. Nobody can ever guarantee that I don’t have a few rogue cancer cells still floating around somewhere, so I’ll keep going to my oncology checkups every few months for the next couple of years… and then every six months for a few years after that, and then yearly for the rest of my long, healthy, happy, cancer-free life :-)
This is not the actual photo of my friends and me celebrating. That photo involved shots and scrubs and this is way prettier.
    How do I even start to explain to you what it feels like to be done with this?  I’m not sure that I can even identify to myself how I feel about it. Can you believe it hasn’t even been one year? On September 21st I went for a seemingly normal visit with my doctor, and on April 12th I was officially in remission.  Six and half months for my life to be turned upside-down, for everything I took for granted to be knocked senseless, for me to hit lows I was completely unprepared for and then rocket right back up to the highest highs.  I know I’m being dramatic but c’mon, this WAS dramatic!!!!  It’s shaken me up quite a bit, and I don’t think I’m settled yet. There are some big questions up in the air (will I be able to have kids?) but the overwhelming sensation is just absolute joy.  A little while ago I wrote about how having cancer gives you the freedom to face the rest of life absolutely unafraid. This is still true, but I guess I never realized how it also gives you the freedom to be absolutely happy. I don’t have to second-guess good things that come my way in life, or be restrained in my enjoyment of life’s small pleasures, or have any doubts whatsoever about my worth as a person.  I spent 204 days in pain, fighting, suffering, crying, and believe me I am DONE with that. I have EARNED my happiness now and I am going to enjoy the hell out of it!!!!!!!  I plan to spend my summer having an absolutely fabulous time with my friends, partying, laughing, dancing, drinking, and listening to too many Kelly Clarkson-esque inspirational power pop-ballads.
   Well it turns out there is more that I still have to say, but it’s late and I don’t want to bore you.  I absolutely promise to finish this tomorrow, and the upside is that I don’t have to say goodbye QUITE yet :-)

3 comments:

  1. Congrats on Duke and being cancer free and in remission. Boston will be a little darker without you. I am really happy that things are working out for you. I guess good things happen for good people.

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  2. Absolutely. Delightful. Congratulations!

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