Chemo is over.  Might be hard to believe but I was sad.  You see all the people at the Cancer Clinic in St. Augustine had become like family.  The staff and doctors were so upbeat that it was hard to not like them.  And it was like leaving friends.

I had a fabulous nurse through the whole ordeal.  She was one of a kind.  Not saying the other three girls weren't great.  I just bonded with mine.  It was very hard to say goodbye.  Oh, I'll go back to see her and take her to lunch some.  But I will not be sitting in a chair anymore and I'll miss the laughing and crying (she cried when my Mom died).  

Now I'm on a 6 month check up for two years.  When they said this was the best kind of cancer (follicular lymphoma)  to have, they were right.  Cure rate is high even at stage 3.  I am forever grateful that God sent me a doctor who almost immediately knew the disease that was killing my body.

There were days I thought I would not make it before the diagnosis and treatment.  I felt myself slipping away slowly.  I lost so much weight; could not walk without help; or do much else for myself.  I was trying to stay strong but after 9 months of not knowing and getting sicker and sicker, I was giving up.  So when this one doctor sent me to the er after blood work showed I was slowly dying, I began to think I might have a chance.  Five days in intensive care and my angel doctor was enough to give me hope again.  Then I began to fight.  Very seldom did I have a bad day or bad thoughts.

The doctor and my nurse both told me how proud of me they were.  I didn't know how to take that at first.  After all I wasn't the one giving the care.  But then it dawned upon me that they had seen me come in a wheelchair and walk out under my own power.  They had watched my weight come back to a good weight.  They knew I was fighting with all my might to get my life back.  So I'm proud of me too.

I am ever so grateful to the many people who fought along side me.  The wonderful people who prayed and had their friends and family pray for me.  I came to realize that I had friends that I had not known existed.  That was a gift itself.