Today is an exciting day for Serenity and our family. It’s been 2 years since her diagnosis! (it was actually yesterday, the 24th of May but most of the family was either sick or gone.) Why Carpe Diem Day? It’s to remind Cancer Survivors and their families that every day is a gift and to live it to the fullest.
As parents, we are extremely protective of our children, we’re willing to fight to the death for them. There is nothing in the world like the completely impotent feeling you feel when a doctor mumbles that your child has cancer. It’s a heart sinking, world crashing, totally hopeless feeling. It immediately invokes tears – why? Because there is absolutely nothing you as a parent can do about it. There is no fighting the beast, there is no selflessly jumping in front of the bullet. Once the word Cancer is out, you are just a bystander, collateral damage, a helpless, useless attache to the person who just got diagnosed. Once the Cancer genie out of the bottle, there is not going back. Life as you knew it is over – you are now a Cancer Family and everything is different.
Two years ago when Serenity was diagnosed with Leukemia, they weren’t yet sure what type it was. There were two types they thought it could be, AML with a low survival rate or ALL with an 80% survival rate. It would take 24 hours for us to find out which one she had. During that time we as parents had to come to terms with the very real possibility that she could be dead within a couple days to a few months.
Mentally and emotionally we had to consider her dead to be able to deal with what was coming. Getting to that point was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, but it was worth it. The following day when we found out she had ALL it was like she was given back to us for a time. Since then, every day is a gift, a blessing, to be able to have her with us. At some point, it is very highly likely that cancer will take her. But, for the last two years she has been able to be with us. I can’t express how grateful we are for that!
Going through that experience really taught us to be grateful for every day that we have her with us. Whether it’s a tough day, stressful, roid rage or just happy and snugly – we are so very grateful to have it.
So, today we celebrate the gift of another two years with her, and pray for many many more!
I want to pictorially recapture the last two years, much of it is available here on the blog but for most of us it’s been a while since we read through those early posts. Here’s the last two years in snapshots.
The last picture of her previous life – Pre-Cancer.
In the ambulance, being medi-vac’d to Primary Childrens Hospital.
In the PCMC ER, waiting to be admintted
A bad reaction to a blood transfusion
Unhappy about her port, right after her operation to have it installed.
A month later her hair fell out.
At Give Kids the World on her Wish Trip from Make A Wish Foundation to DisneyWorld to meet Snow White!
About a year after diagnosis.
Being treated last week for a viral bronchial infection.
At her last clinic visit – our happy, mostly healthy almost 4 year old Cancer Survivor!
Tonight we’ll be celebrating her Carpe Diem day with a small family party. She goes off treatment in July. She’s well aware that she only has 2 more clinic visits and she is EXCITED!!! She’ll be throwing a big off-treatment bash in July, you’re all invited!
