Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.....

Hello Everyone,

This is the post I've been looking forward to writing and telling you that Christmas came early this year. I was a bit cryptic with my post about waiting for CT scan results, cancer clinics and test results in my November 13th post. My cousin, (more like a sister) Melody, and I were diagnosed with cancer within a few weeks of each another. 

When your physician starts throwing words at you such as cancer, aggressive, invasive, and says, "Let's schedule a CT scan to see if the cancer has spread", your whole world stops. My world stopped on November 3rd when those were the words that my doctor told me. You try to carry on with life as usual, and try to act as normal as possible, but you can't.

On November 18th I had a tumor removed from my bladder. My CT scan came back negative, so I knew going into surgery that the cancer had not spread. I've been waiting for two weeks for the pathology report which came back yesterday. I'm free of cancer. The tumor is gone, it was not invasive and not aggressive.

I was so fortunate and now I'm a poster child for early detection. Had this tumor gone undetected, my story would have had a different outcome down the road. My future treatment will be getting very "chummy" with my urologist over the next six years for constant check-ups. Bladder cancers tends to return, but I feel that I'm in good care and the worst is behind me.

My friends and family got me through the last few weeks. You cheered me with emails, cards and telephone calls, listened to me, brought food over, and shared your cancer survival stories. Your thoughtfulness, prayers and inspiration means more to me than you will ever know.

So you see, there is a Santa Claus.  I received the best present ever......the gift of having a future.  You can bet that I will make good use of my "gift."  Now let's get back to quilting, living, praying and loving. 

As always,

Lynn

P.S. Melody was diagnosed with breast cancer and started her first round of chemotherapy two weeks ago.  I will keep you posted on her progress.