My 60th Year...what a doozy.

     Today is my birthday.  I am 60 years old and am delighted to be alive.  Really. Since I started blogging in 2012, I've been able to get to a happy place about my birthday.  I've been grateful about living, surrounded by my incredible posse of family and friends.  This birthday feels different because, without a doubt, this past year been the most acutely challenging year of my life.  All three parts of that "triad" I often refer to, (my mind, body, and spirit), were beaten up...beyond recognition.  

      Since my diagnosis, my health challenge has been my cancer. This past year, however, my life has been consumed with recovering from an elective hip replacement, and every conceivable complication possible, including a femur fracture, crazy infection, blood clots and internal bleeding.  It has now been 8 months since the last of three surgeries I had in 2018, and despite my total commitment to rehab, it has only been about a month since I've been able to walk without a cane.  

     Everyone's heard that old the proverb, "with age, comes wisdom", and during this past year I've aged, and had the opportunity to grasp a few of those pearls. I'm writing them down to share with my children, Nathan and Nina.   

     #1.  Shit happens...despite good planning.  I did my due diligence and scheduled surgery with the best orthopedic surgeon I could find. Shit still happened. 

     #2.  Weakness begets weakness.  Very soon after my femur broke and well into my rehab, I experienced indescribable fatigue, loss of muscle mass, and dwindling mental fortitude. The weaker I got, the weaker I got.  

     #3.  Strength begets strength. Rebuilding one's body takes a long time and requires the patience that often escapes me.  Somewhere along the rehab road I realized that I had less pain and more strength.  And then there were/are days when I only have pain because I've pushed myself too hard in workouts; a hazard of impatience.  But the pearl of wisdom I hold onto the hardest is that the stronger I get, the stronger I can get.  Strength builds upon itself.   

     #4.  When maintained, our bodies are amazing machines. I thought for sure that my body wouldn't be able to recover from my hip replacement/femur fracture fiasco and fight cancer.  I was wrong. 

     #5.  In a strong family, life doesn't happen in a vacuum.  A few days ago I told Wynn that 2018 has been the worst year of my life. He responded, "Mine, too." 

     So for this birthday, I'm going to do my best to look forward to my 61st birthday and hopefully by then, I'll be able to get back to that, more celebratory, place.  In the mean time, wish me luck!

Oh...also...

     In celebration of living with stage 4 lung cancer for 6 years now, I am raising funds for further lung cancer research - the kind of research that is keeping me alive.  If you can, please consider making a donation that will advance research in ROS1-mutation driven lung cancers - a rare cause of the #1 cancer killer.  Here's a link:

 

https://www.supportalcf.org/ros1/LunaHelpsLungCancerResearch?fbclid=IwAR1S5QulPZJNViG3-w6FJO-XbpWCojG-UQoNYqvZND9zt3fdiZt8vcvPpUI

...and THANK YOU!