3 Weeks and 40!
Where to start? I hit 3 weeks on Wednesday, which leaves 3 weeks left. Yay! It's so close yet so far away.
During this week my pain has really effected my eating. I have mouth sores all over which is making this task more difficult. Think about when you eat something spicy and it burns with each bite. For me this happens with any food or drink times 10, which does not help motivate me to eat. They have put me on another pain killer to try to mange the pain. I am hoping this helps relieve it enough to eat.
I am able to manage most of the other side effects, but the mouth sores are ridiculous. The dry mouth comes and goes, which has been weird and super annoying.
This week I also turned 40, which this wasn't how I expected to celebrate it. With everything that has happened this year with COVID and cancer, I would have had to say that this is one of the worst years ever. But the more I reflect, I have come to see it that I am thankful to see 40 years old and beyond. I am excited for what the future holds. As many have read in my previous blogs, we all know that this diagnosis could've gone a different way. I have realized that I need to be celebrating the fact that I made it to another decade and get to see many more birthdays to come.
To add upon this cancer diagnosis and treatment we have been dealing with COVID, which is another crazy 2020 "gift". COVID hit around the time my tongue lesion showed up. As we were all forced to quarantine, I saw this as an opportunity to refocus and spend more time with the family. We were always go go go with sports and events, quarantine forced us to slow down and spend some quality time with each other. It gave us the opportunity to refocus on what was truly important....FAMILY.
In the world today there is so much going on and so much that is dividing it everyday. There is so much that can bring people together, but at times we don’t always see it. We were going to keep this quiet, but decided to come out ad let everyone know what's going on. Let me tell you we have seen families, friends, and community come together. We have so much and so many people to be thankful for.
I won't use peoples names in this because I didn't get permission before, but everyone knows who they are. We have had our families help with meals, sending the kids treats, and checking on us throughout. Immediate family has done so much with watching the kids during hospital stays, taking and picking the kids up, getting them out of the house for a few, and so much more. We are so thankful to all of our family for helping us through this time.
We have had so many friends that have helped us in providing people to clean our house, bring us meals, helped fix stuff because I couldn't do it with my surgery, calling to check in, taking the kids to things they had going on, and getting Pamela out for a few. We have some amazing friends that went above and beyond to try and help us with anything they could do. We are very thankful to all of you.
To our Shafer family, we are so thankful for everything you all have done. Our friends put together a meal train from our school without us knowing. They started it in September and it went to October, which was 3 days a week. When they told us, they said the form filled up very quickly. This blew Pamela and I away because it was so unexpected. This was a tremendous help as we will not have to worry about meals. We are so thankful for each and every one of you for providing us with all of the support.
Never in a million years did I think that we would have so many people in our lives that cared for us so much. I never wanted people to go out of their way or did I ever want to ask for help. That's how I have always been. Everyone has made us truly feel loved and supported.
Yes, 2020 has had a lot of not a good things happen. Also, 2020 has given us a lot to be thankful for like family, friends, and community. There's always 1000 different ways we can look at a situation. If you can see the positive in any situation, then the feeling and attitude you carry will be a positive one.
I know that I am not the only one going through difficult times this year. I do say this, try to maintain a positive attitude the best you can no matter what is going on. Don't ever be afraid to ask for help. Always be thankful for the family, friends, and community that you have.
In writing these blogs, I do have to give a huge thank you to my brother Cory. He looks through the blogs before I put them out. He makes them shiny and pretty on the way out. Cory helped me in creating the website and so much more. Thank you so much!
Have an attitude of gratitude!
Always keep pushing forward!