Skip to main content

Making Lemonade Out of A Lemon


So, for day 2 of my January 2014 gratitude project, I am going to discuss my gratitude relating to what is actually a pretty awful situation.  This is totally a case of trying to make lemonade out of a real lemon!

You see, just before Christmas I found out a dear friend of mine (a mom of 2, just 44 years old) has ovarian cancer.  I was shocked, sickened, angry, and terrified.  Of course, what I am going through is nothing compared to what she, her partner and kids are going through!

So what am I grateful for?  I am extremely grateful that it was caught early!

Most ovarian cancers are only caught in the later stages because there are often no symptoms early on.

What happened to my friend is that in late November, she had an ovarian cyst rupture.  She woke up in extreme pain one morning and ended up being rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery.  As worried as we all were, we were told it was just a fluke thing, the ovary was removed laparoscopically, and she was recovering well from the surgery.  But when her and her wife went in for the post-op review with the surgeon, they were hit with the horrific news that they had found cancer in the ovary.  She was sent for a CAT scan to see if it had spread and spent 6 agonizing days waiting to find out just how serious the situation is.

The good news is that they found no evidence it has spread at this point.  Nevertheless, they have scheduled her for a full hysterectomy this month and they still don't know what the treatment plan will be in terms of chemo, radiation, etc.

While the unfairness of this situation makes me feel furious (she is the most wonderful person in the prime of her life!), I am trying to focus on the silver lining here that it was caught early.  I am also trying to be productive and offer to do useful things to help out the family.  I am promised my services to her as a personal trainer following her surgery to get her back on her feet (once she gets the okay from her surgeon of course!).  In fact, I am thinking that I am going to make this previously, somewhat sedentary woman - into a serious ass-kicking super woman.  She liked that idea!

So that's what I'm grateful for.  That if this terrible thing had to happen to my wonderful friend, at least, it was caught early and I am going to do everything in my power to help her through it.

Live every day like it was your last my friends.  Hug your loved ones tight an be grateful for every breath you take.

Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 3, 2014 at 10:28 AM

    Thank you for sharing this. It will greatly help me in my workouts. I will bookmark it and share with my friends.
    Tracy Hayes

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The A to Z of Children's Health

Hey there, welcome to Monday!  We had a delightful, relatively quiet weekend.  How was yours?  Hopefully no one in your home was sick...there is a lot of nasty stuff going around these days. If you're a parent, than you have probably spent far more time that you would like to desperately searching Google and/or parenting books trying to figure out if your child's rash, cough or fever warrants a trip to the doctor or if there is something that can be done to treat it.  It's hard not to worry that it could be something more ominous that just an every day infection and while you'd make yourself (and everyone around you) nuts if you panicked every time your kid has the sniffles, as a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to prevent your child from harm. Recently I was sent The A to Z of Children's Health , written by doctors Jeremy Friedman, Natasha Saunders, and Norman Saunders, of Toronto's very own Hospital for Sick Children .  One of th...
164 comments
Read more

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies.  Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!!  I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance.  Not to improve their health or athletic performance.  To look their best.  He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ...
1 comment
Read more

Blackfly Coolers: Product Review

Summer is over! Well, at least if you're a student. Officially it doesn't end for a few weeks, and it certainly still feels like summer. Yeah, I hate it. This f*cking hot, humid weather needs to end NOW! We made the most of our last weekend of the summer with our annual trip to the CNE on Friday, with a crowd of friends. It wasn't unbearably lot, thank goodness, and the girls and their friends had a blast on the rides.  Saturday I had to work, and Sunday was errand day. Monday we took the girls berry/apple/pear picking but didn't last long due to the heat. I organized the house to prepare for the construction workers starting back up yesterday, while Adam took the girls for a swim in our neighbourhood pool. Yesterday was the first day of school. Grade 2 and Grade 5. Yep, the girls are growing up.  We are fortunate that the girls don't have much anxiety about school, they are so much more confident than I ever was as a kid! But now, in the midst of our reno ch...
1 comment
Read more