Cancer and Healthy

As children many of us thought dosage was measured only in physical terms, how many pounds you could lift, how big your muscles were, how successful you are in an arm wrestling match. As we grew older we came to realize that was also the mental strength, how to resist peer pressure, how to stay home and study for this exam even if all your friends are partying. For many of us, our physical strength gets tested more often than the spiritual and therefore we can not categorically answer, How strong are you?

How many of us could go through chemotherapy with a smile? How many of us would cope with losing their hair with panache? How many of us would be able to cope on your head and mortality have absolute faith even through the darkest hours that morning? The strongest person I know was that, and much more. She 5'5 barely touched, she can not bench press half her weight and she would probably lose in a strong arm wrestling contest, but she is.

She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at the age of 26 years, three and a half months ago. From the beginning they tell you it was a "Do not worry, I'm going to be fine", was it to make you smile, help you feel better. One of her doctors calls her "Sunshine" and that she is. We know each other more than 10 years, she was always more of a flamboyant, she stepped into a room and charmed everyone in seconds. The Yin to my Yang, I prefer an observer and she loves the center of attention.

At the end of 2007, as my 26th birthday approached we decided we would have a Thanksgiving get together with all our friends and celebrate the official to late twenties-only-a-few-years-from-thirty event. By that time everyone was spread across North America and we would have a weekly teleconference with up to four ladies giggling on the phone and talk for hours in succession. Our tickets are booked, our topics for discussion are written drunk, our bags were packed and we were halfway ready. Our plans were changed forever.

On November 1 my best friend was diagnosed with Leukemia. Do you ... LEUKEMIA? BUT SHE'S ONLY 26? The doctors must be wrong! In our naivety think we are immortal, think that our age in one way or another to protect us ... how wrong we are. Nov. 1 - diagnosis, Nov. 2 - the immediate treatment. It is all happening so fast, turn to Google for answers, you search for "acute myeloid leukemia," and read a medical journal stating that "... if left untreated the person can die in a matter of weeks. "Oh. My. God. Your concern doubles, but you're still grateful that he was caught in time. Thank you Lord!

You start hearing words like chemotherapy, biopsy, transfusion, transplantation and you can not imagine what your friend must go through if you are so devastated. And yet, her spirit still shines as a beacon ... Absolutely amazing. You experience first-hand the pain that she has been through, you hear her bed rattle because they shiver uncontrollably as a side effect of her medication, you at least 7 different cocktail of drugs that were fed her intravenously, you see her lose 30 pounds in 6 weeks, rub your anti-itch lotion on her body because another medication causes her to itch everywhere and yet its absolute belief in its curative never Wavre. Even through her tears, they are familiar. Even in her pain, she believed. And that is strength.

For many, the worrying and what IFS would compound their problems, the doubts would stifle their spirit, the depression of their pain would increase. I do not think that I kind of strength, I hope I do, but who lived a rather 'test-free' life up to now, so I can not say with absolute certainty that I would do. My friend the situation has opened my eyes, made me more compassionate to others' situation. It was not that I feel no sympathy, but never touched you on that deep level, I think, because you could not relate. Unfortunately, we, or someone close to us going through such a situation for us to know.

My friend is not out of the woods yet. Her cancer is in remission, however, they should have done a bone marrow transplant, like the results of genetic tests photo shows the likelihood of recurrent cancer is very high. She has a long road ahead of her but fortunately she is now out of the hospital. The search for a donor, she has three brothers and sisters and nobody matched. When we are healthy we never know how something as small as a pint of our blood can change someone's life. Donation.