What were you doing in 2006?

What were you doing in 2006?  In the afternoon of Thursday Oct. 20, 2006? Do you remember? I do. Distinctly and in detail. After finding a lump under my arm that morning, I was hearing from my local physician, for the very first time . . . “I think you have cancer.” Life Before Cancer ended on Oct. 20, 2006

On Friday Oct. 21, 2006, the biopsied lump was whisked away to a lab for testing leaving me to wait till Monday, Oct. 24, 2006 when I heard, “ Stage 4. Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma / Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.( SLL/CLL )  Stage 4!! Eleven days later, on Nov. 6, I began a two and half year regime of chemotherapy. I was told with the blood markers I had, that 5 -7 years was a good prognosis of my life. This cancer is dogged and persistent. It is ‘treatable but not curable’ . . . says the experts.  Every day of my life, I choose life, joy and hope. relentlessHOPE -that is my mantra. Hope that is more dogged, more persistent and more tenacious then CLL/SLL. I have now been in remission since 2007 . . .  many wonderful, amazing, memorable experiences since that day in 2006 . . . as a then 43 year-old woman, I still had three teenagers at home. So much of life ahead.  Life now is A.C. After Cancer. . . regular scans convince me cancer is not yet within my body. Life beckons and I answer…yes. Whatever is life’s question…my answer is yes.