Since we are nearing the end of Breast Cancer awareness month I have chosen to share my story with you.
Several years ago I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Having never been sick a day in my life, I wondered how could this have happened to me. I felt all those feelings everyone talks about about, especially the feeling of failure and loss of control. I had a wonderful doctor who gave me the most beautiful advise. He said,"when a person has a serious illness, he or she feels that they have lost control over many aspects of their lives. Remember you are always in control! If you do not understand what the doctors are doing, ask questions, if you do not like something about a treatment, tell them and if you are too weak for treatments, tell them. And most importantly whichever treatment you finally decide on,you must have absolute faith that the decision you made was the right one for you, not someone else!!! Remember stay in control!!!"
Ira and I discussed my choices and we both agreed to go along with any decision I made and even though we both handle sickness differently, he would respect and understand anything I wanted to do. For six months we were a team committed to getting through this ordeal. The letter C was not going to interupt my life. Ira had a date with me every time I went for a chemo treatment. He would sit and talk to me about anything he could think of to make the time pass quickly. Then we would go out to dinner. I love margaritas and even though I really did not drink during those six months we did share one margarita at dinner. If anyone asked me how many treatment sessions I had left, I would answer with how many margarita dates I would still be going on.
Was it a difficult period for us- OF COURSE! Was it really life as usual-NO WAY! Did we both have to tip-toe around each other-DEFINITLY! Did we make something special out of something heart wrenching? YOU BET WE DID!!!! Those dates were the most memorable ever!!!
Now I only use the letter C for COMMUNICATION, COMPROMISE, COMPLIMENT, CONCERN, COMPASSION, CHILDREN, CASH, CREDIT CARD and ofcourse CHANEL