A Long Year

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Home For Good!

Well, I think these blog posts are going to start getting pretty boring. I'll try and write things that may interest you. I'm going to post some pictures. They start with the beginning of the hospital visits in January of 2007 and end with pictures of the apartment I was able to stay in near the hospital pre and post transplant, the day my stem cells were collected, and my time in the hospital. I spent almost a month in the hospital. Not the best month, but I think it was much better than when I was diagnosed and had to spend 5 weeks in the hospital. It has been such a long 15 months and it is hard to believe that it is really over. A normal life? What's that? Hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon. I have a check up with my doc next Wednesday so hopefully he'll say I'm doing good. I will get scans in a month or so to let us know that I am in complete remission. That will be exciting! It is so nice to be home! I will never take home, my own bed , or health for granted. I wanted to say thank you to my mom. She has been so amazing through this all. She has helped me so much throughout all of this and has sacrificed so much. I wish there was some way to repay her but I know that she would say my good health is payment enough. I love you so much mom! Thank you! And thanks to the rest of my wonderful family and my sweet husband and his family. I feel so blessed to have such incredible people in my life. I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for all of you. May God bless each and every one of you. One last thing I wanted to share with you for now is a special little girl my mom and I met at The Goodwill the other day. I was sitting by the door waiting for my mom and a beautiful little blond girl walked in with her dad. She looked at me and smiled and I smiled back. She walked past me. Then a few seconds later she came back and said, "excuse me, did you have cancer?" I told her yes but that I just got a stem cell transplant so I am all better now. She was very inquisitive. She asked to feel my head and asked about my scar. I told her about the doctors who took out my brain tumor and she wondered how they put my head back together. (I think she asked if they glued it back together.) I told her that they actually stapled it. "Stapled!" she asked, in shock, with her eyes wide with amazement. She probably said stapled 3 more times. After talking with her and her dad for a little while I got up to start walking over to my mom. Then she came back to tell me that her dad said he thinks I'm beautiful even with cancer and she told me a story about cutting off her long hair to make a wig for her friend with cancer. I'm not sure if all my facts are straight but after she ran off again I looked over at my mom. We were both in tears. What a little angel. About 6 or 7 years old maybe. I wish I could relive that special day. Such a beautiful little soul, inside and out. One more thing. My brother-in-law Dodd and his wife Amy just had a little baby boy. He's adorable, although I haven't got to meet him in person yet. I love and miss you all. Feel free to post a comment if you wish or email me! Hope you all are doing well!