Best Products of the Week | February 1st through February 7th

It is a conundrum since I don’t normally place any validity in things like karma, fate, whatever but while I was going through treatment I grasped at anything that felt like a sign of how things were going to go. When I was diagnosed my daughter was 5 years old and I told my oncologist that I needed him to keep me alive until she finished high school. When she graduated I told him I would like to live through her college years. That milestone passed and I told him I would like to see my grandchildren. He jokes with me that I keep moving the goal post. I have had several acquaintances who have had it return sometimes within months and others after years. My oncologist told me that I would likely die of breast cancer but he couldn’t tell me when that would be. He said they don’t know what triggers the metastasis to start growing. Way back in my early nursing career, we believed that if your lymph nodes were negative then there was no way you would have mets. They know that isn’t true now and they also know that it metastasizes very, very early. Those little cancer cells are sitting out there like little time bombs waiting to explode. I had a good friend who had a very aggressive form of kidney cancer. She was diagnosed and treated when she was 18 and the Doctor’s did not give her 18 months to live. She is in her sixties and accidentally tripped stepping off a curb. She broke a rib. Weeks and weeks later she was still having severe pain and so they started looking to see if the rib wasn’t healing or what was causing the pain. They found a tumor in her liver and when they biopsied it, it turned out to be the same cancer she had when she was 18, so you never know when it will raise its ugly head. I am thankful for every one of the days I have had and the chance to live and see my daughter grow up is truly priceless. I think you are right, I should throw a party and let the cancer be damned.