Anniversaries

These coming weeks I will be having some major anniversaries:

• July 19th - 4 years since my diagnosis with NHL
• July 22nd - 3 years since my 1st BMT
• August 8th - 2 years since my 2nd BMT

It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years since I've been battling with this disease. It's actually closer to 5 years since my tumor was growing many months prior to being diagnosed. I feel like I've been dealing with chemo and all the challenges that cancer patients are faced with for most of my life. I know many people think that I live a pretty normal life considering the circumstances, however I don't feel that is the case. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't deal with some challenge, whether it's physical or emotional.

I must admit that many positive things have come out of my diagnosis. For one I have become a stronger person emotionally. If anything, dealing with the loss of my mom has been much harder than dealing with my disease. There isn't a day that goes by that she's not on my mind. I have also become a lot stronger when dealing with medical issues. Before being diagnosed the thought of having a blood test was terrifying, now it's a daily routine for me. One thing that I don't consider good, is how I'm a lot less tolerant of people that don't take care of themselves and complain about things that are meaningless. Every day I hear someone complain about how miserable they are at work, how they're overweight, how they don't get enough sleep, etc...yet they don't do anything about it. I don't think they realize how easy they have it compared to someone dealing with a life threatening disease.