Cancer removed/Hope remains!

Hello family and friends…

Thank you, for the love and prayers you all continue to send my way as well as all who contributed to the GoFundMe account. I cannot thank you enough for how much this has helped our family with all the medical expenses, as well as me being out of work for the last 2 months. I am very grateful to each and every one of you and feel very loved. I am also feeling better and better every day!

Monday marks the 8th week since my surgery and I have spent that time at home, regaining my strength. It’s been a very slow recovery process, but overall each day is progress. At my 6 week check-up, it was confirmed that I won’t need chemo or radiation at this point and my doctor said I was healing well and she didn’t need to see me again for 6 months! YAY!!

This year has been emotional, to say the least. But through it all, I’ve experienced a closeness with God that I wouldn’t trade for anything. His peace and comfort continue to sustain me, through the valley of the shadow of death and now, as I attempt to climb towards the mountaintops. God was so faithful in these last 6 difficult months of my life. In May, my Mother died from colon cancer. In July, I discovered my own cancer and by August I was preparing for surgery, to have a 2-inch tumor and 8 inches of my colon removed. My life, as I knew it, had drastically changed.

When this all started, I was facing my prognosis and future with a great deal of fear and uncertainty. But as I shifted my focus on God, instead of my circumstances, He became my comforter, my strength, my hope, my hiding place, my Abba Father and my all-in-all! My fear was replaced with peace and my uncertainty replaced with Hope! His Love for me became so personal and real, that nothing else mattered. I’m flooded with gratitude, as I  recover and my soul rejoices for having had the privilege of experiencing God, in such a deep and personal way, through this storm.

In a single moment, life can change for any one of us. We live each day and plan as though we’ll always have tomorrow, but tomorrow is promised to no man. When we come face-to-face with a potentially life-threatening experience, everything comes to a screeching halt and we are suddenly faced with the possibility of no ‘tomorrow’ at all. It’s a moment we’ll never forget. If we are humble enough, we’ll fall to our knees and ask God to take over the wheel of our lives and if we do, He is faithful to answer. If we don’t, we potentially risk hardening our hearts and blinding our eyes from seeing His presence and provision. I’m so glad that He is persistent and patient with us, because I am prone to wander and likely to fail without Him. I would much rather let God be at the wheel of my life, than me; I have a track-history of crashing.

I’ve been told that I will have to check in with my doctors and monitor things over the next 5 years, but I fall into the 85% success rate of the cancer never returning. I rejoice in this good news. However, my hope is not in the statistics…My Hope remains in Christ!

Lastly, I finally returned back to work last week and it feels so good to be out of the house and reunited with the great people at Akua and all my wonderful clients. I have surely missed you! My schedule will be light, initially. I’m booking appointments for Tuesday’s-Saturday’s, (9:00-4:00). I will start out slow and then fill up the days, as I gain more energy. Since the holidays are fast approaching, I suggest pre-booking to ensure getting in when you want.  Although I continue to have great progress, I still have limits to what I can and cannot do. I’m trying to find my new “normal” and adjust my routine around that, so I really appreciate your patience and understanding. Looking forward to seeing you.

Signing off for now…Much love, hugs & gratitude,

~Danielle

 

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