Embrace
Do you have a word of the year? Sometimes I think it is a silly tradition and other times I am happy that I take time to choose one. I am not much for New Years Resolutions (cause lets face it..who REALLY keeps to those?) but having a word that encompasses my year has been good for me. This year my word is "Embrace". It stems from a somewhat tough ending to 2017. It was a good reminder for me to embrace. Embrace life, Embrace Family as you never know what tomorrow brings.
This is going to get a bit personal and emotional so bear with me you guys. Many of you may already know but in case you don't know, my mom was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer last year. The dreaded "C" word that hits you so hard the wind is knocked out of you. You think, it can't happen to me but reality is, it can happy TO ANYONE. And honestly, I can bet every one of you who are reading this, the "C" word has affected you in one way or another.
The day my mom found out, I was on the next plane to see her in Reno and to have a FANTASTIC weekend together. We got our make-up done, went to a fancy dinner and watched a beautiful ballet. Just enjoyed the weekend. We talked about kicking Cancer's A** and that no matter what ; TO LIVE.
“Embrace the Journey ”
I flew back home and I am pretty sure I was a walking zombie for about week as my mom worked through the next steps. She started her fight to kick Cancer's A** with a surgery to remove the tumor. I was there with her and it was HARD. I was scared, she was scared and there was so much unknown as she headed in. I am so thankful to write that THEY GOT ALL OF IT! Good margins and it had not spread to her Lymph Nodes. For those that do not know Triple Negative is the worst and fastest growing Breast Cancer so the surgery results were fantastic. It was caught early and hopefully that is going to make all the difference.
Once the surgery was complete it was on to Chemo and Radiation. Suck. Suck. Suck. (I actually would prefer a few other four letter words but I am doing by best to keep this clean). Even though they "got" the tumor there is still a chance that it could come back or that a cell could be floating somewhere (UGH) so she started with chemo. Chemo can suck it. Period. It was everything they said it would be and worse. I don't wish chemo on anyone EVER. She stumbled through chemo and then on to radiation which I am proud to say she completed this month! It was a journey. A journey she had to fight her way through every second of the battle.
She DID indeed make it and I am so proud of her. While we don't know what the future holds as of now, she has done everything she can to hopefully have kicked its A** so far to the freaking moon that it won't be back to visit...EVER. I like to live in a state of Bliss (duh) so I am approaching it with as much positivity as I can and reminding myself to EMBRACE LIFE! Live each day. No regrets. Make a bucket list and actually start checking it off. No one knows how much time we have but we seriously need to make the best of the time we do have.
““Whatever the present moment contains, embrace it as if you had chosen it yourself.””
If you have a word of the year I would love to hear what it is? Feel free to leave a comment and share. Or if you have been impacted by the "C" word please feel free to share. This is not my first time with Cancer in my family but this is the first time it was caught early enough to do something about it. So for that, I am so thankful. And because all posts are better with photos and It is time to lighten up this post a bit.
Me. In a nutshell. Always laughing.
