Surviving the Storm
-
When the World Expects More Than You Can Give
The sun is up. The house is still. The clock ticks off the morning until it’s closer to lunchtime than to breakfast. I’m in bed, covers over my head, curled around my body pillow, my cat asleep against me. Not because I stayed up too late the night before or because it’s my one morning to sleep in or because I haven’t had a do-nothing day in weeks. I had one yesterday, the day before, and the day before that. My month has been packed solid with do-nothing days. I should be doing laundry, cleaning my bathroom, making a much needed grocery run, checking my daughter’s homework, calling about a…
-
Strong Enough
A year into my son’s aggressive chemo regimen, he started to look less like a college boy and more like a nursing home candidate. His hips didn’t work right. His knees didn’t work right. His feet didn’t work right. He was falling apart faster than a hundred-year-old man. After he fell three times in a week, his physical therapist suggested better shoes. Really good shoes. The kind that require an actual fitting and a store that doesn’t start with “Wal” and end with “Mart.” We drove to the closest specialty shoe store, hoping new shoes would be an easy fix for yet another debilitating side-effect of constant chemo…READ THE REST…
-
The Best from the Broken
If you have children–grandchildren, godchildren, nieces or nephews, or a special child in your life–you understand how hard it is to watch them struggle and hurt. When our kids are little, we have some ability to protect them. But as they grow older, they sometimes make decisions out of our control. Decisions that come with consequences. And whether they want to take those choices back or not, it’s often too late. Other times, our kids are walking steady on the right path, but life just happens. Through no fault of their own, they get knocked off track and have to deal with the consequences that follow as well. It doesn’t…
-
Bring on the Blessings
I’ve been thinking a lot about blessings lately. It’s been a hard few years for our family. My son recently hit the twenty-month mark in his journey with leukemia. We’re shuffling along slower than we were before cancer struck and forced him home from college to battle for his life. The adrenaline that hit at his diagnosis, and pushed us through crisis after crisis, has given way to a crash of exhaustion. We’re ready to ride the downhill relief of getting over the worst of the cancer mountain, yet we’re stuck in the middle of the climb. Every one of us is drained and tired and ready to be done–because…
-
Surviving the Storm: Everything You Didn’t Want to Know About Chemo
I forgot how ugly chemo can get. Over the last six years, while my son stayed cancer-free, I pushed to the side the ugliness of our first battle with leukemia. Kind of like I shoved away the pain of childbirth after he was born. If I’d remembered my first experience with labor, Kyle would’ve been an only child. If I’d remembered our first ride with cancer, I’d have locked him up in a magic bubble where cancer could never find him. The further Kyle gets into his current treatment, the faster the horrors of chemo come back and suddenly I’m reliving every moment of those rough years in very gritty…
-
Surviving the Storm: Running Cancer’s Maze
When the movie, The Maze Runner, hit Redbox, I rented the Blu-ray. Watching movies on our big screen is one of the few things we can still enjoy as a family since my oldest son, Kyle, relapsed with leukemia. His aggressive chemo schedule ensures we don’t take vacations or plan parties or participate in activities that don’t involve spending major chunks of time sitting on cushy chairs. Living in a state of crisis has become our new norm. We’re sadly ecstatic when we learn more about new medications. And planning any outings feels pointless when Cancer hijacks our schedule ninety-nine percent of the time. Trying to survive cancer feels a…
-
Surviving the Storm: Shaken
Faith feels easy when life is easy. But what happens when life gets hard? What happens when you’re shaken? Author’s Note: Last year, my oldest son, Kyle, relapsed with leukemia, making me a two-time Cancer Mom. I’m sharing our journey not to ask for your pity, but for others who trudge this same road feeling isolated and alone. And for friends and family who watch the suffering and want to help, but don’t know where to begin. SHAKEN I swallowed a sip of burnt coffee and glanced across the blue vinyl booth at my oldest son. His brown hair was messy, like when he’d stepped out of the…
-
You Want Me to be Thankful for What?
Cancer doesn’t observe holidays. Doesn’t take a vacation. Doesn’t step away for a brief time-out. Since the week before Thanksgiving, when my son, Kyle, discovered an unusual mass, cancer dictates how we spend our holidays. The day before Thanksgiving, Kyle went in for an ultrasound. After the results came back abnormal, we spent Black Friday, which also happened to be my birthday, in the ER waiting for a C.T. scan. Right before Christmas, Kyle had surgery to remove the malignant mass. Christmas Eve, we learned the mass was not an isolated tumor, but an extremely rare form of leukemia relapse. New Year’s Eve kicked off a two-year aggressive chemotherapy treatment.…
-
Wishes, Wants, and Secret Fantasies: Surviving the Storm Series
I wish I could pen an eloquent post, something thought-provoking and inspirational. I’ve started thirteen different drafts with thirteen different topics. I even downloaded some cool visual aids. Keep your home comfortable with dependable ac repair service fishers in. But every time I try to finish this blog, my fingers freeze on the keys and all the energy I thought I had to put into some life-changing revelation drains away. I wanted to write a beautiful story of the way my family has bonded and pulled together over Kyle’s fight with cancer. I wanted to say I’m a servant, a martyr, willing to do anything and everything for my son…
-
When Life Stops: Surviving the Storm
Life is complicated. Full of out-of-reach dreams and in-your-face commitments. We are busy with bosses and deadlines and spouses and kids and extended family obligations. Even time with friends doesn’t always come baggage-free. Throw in a few hormonal teens, an excess of extra-curricular activities, an aging pet, and piles of laundry and dishes that never deplete, and peace feels far-fetched. However, amidst the chaos, it’s essential to find moments of solace. Whether it’s through playing ยูฟ่าเบท โบนัสและเงื่อนไขพิเศษ, engaging in hobbies, or simply taking a moment to breathe, managing stress is crucial for maintaining balance in our hectic lives. Sometimes I want off the Tilt-a-Wheel. Sometimes I need to be more…
