On my 39th birthday

On my 39th Birthday, I never thought I would be kicking it off with an 8am radiation appointment for breast cancer.  I could not have predicted this on my birthday last year.   Despite the pain and itchiness that is getting more and more prevalent on my body with radiation treatment, my post today will be focused on what I am grateful for.

I am grateful for my health.  That may seem ironic but this thing could have gone a completely different way and ultimately I have been blessed with catching cancer early, an amazing medical team and a resilience to fight this!  While I am not 100 percent at the moment, I sure am getting there!

I am grateful for love.  The love of my husband, my family and my friends. I feel very loved today and pretty much every day since my diagnosis (and before that too :))  I have no doubt this has improved my outcomes.

I am grateful for my mobility.  The months during chemo were probably the most trying for me as I couldn't do much physically.  today, I did one of the more difficult jillian micheals workouts, and it felt great.   Exercise keeps me sane.

I am grateful for my resilience.  And for good days.  These get me through on the days when I don't want to or think I can't continue or I just feel plain sorry for myself.

I am grateful for hair growth!  You don't realize how much you will miss your hair, your eyelashes and eyebrows.  In September/October I felt like I had no face!  I feel much more like myself these days.   Not ready to go wigless yet but on the way there :)

I am grateful to be celebrating another birthday.  If anything cancer has taught me not to agonize over getting another year older, but appreciating it and being thankful.