I am praying with all of my heart, sending loving thoughts and all of my healing energy to someone very special. I would normally not write about a friend's personal life so candidly but my dear friend has been very open about her situation and has kept a wonderful blog about what she is going through. She wants to educate others and bring awareness to the disease and the benefits of early treatment.
Today this much loved friend is undergoing (right now!!!) a ten hour surgery for very early stage breast cancer. She has chosen to undergo masectomy which reduces the risk of recurrence by well over 90%. I am obviously very concerned about her and have read up on this surgery to see what she will be going through; and am relieved to have read that survival rate at 5 years for this type of cancer at this stage is just about 100%.
That's a darn good thing for all of us. She is the most amazing woman - with such an incredible sense of humor. I adore her. She manages to make being a great wife and mother look easy, and to give so much of herself with a genuine joy and zest. She and her husband are madly in love and it really shows through in the way they are together; it warms my heart to see that kind of affection. She is also incredibly tenacious, going through another long medical odyssey in the past six years in order to bring their three sons into the world. For all that she has suffered in her life, she manages to embrace each day with a warm heart and optimism. She is also a very gifted writer with an MFA in creative writing but she wears her talents so humbly!
I just can't say enough good things about my friend, she is an angel walking on our Earth. The world needs people like this.
My friend is also incredibly brave. Today she is facing what mothers fear the most ~ separation from her children. She lost her own mother to breast cancer at the age of nine and has spent the last few decades waiting watchfully to see if she also carries the genes for this disease. Sadly, she learned last year that she did indeed have them... which led to even more intensive observation and luckily they were able to detect her own cancer at the earliest possible stage. It seems a terribly sad circle of life that she now knows breast cancer intimately from the perspective of both child AND mother.
That said, I believe my friend is going to BREAK her family cycle today. Since she first told us about her cancer, I have prayed every single day and night. I can't explain why but I truly believe that she will be 100% well when all is said and done. In a strange way it feels like life has brought her this opportunity to end an era of familial pain and loss. She will benefit from modern medicine and modern technology so that she can move on to live another sixty years and raise her babies to adulthood and beyond. I'm not just being optimistic... I truly believe throughout my core that she is going to make it through this and come out stronger than ever from this intense experience. Still, I wish more than anything that she didn't have to endure the experience.
Knowing the power of a mother's love, I'll bet the spirit of her own mother is somehow watching over that operating room today.
We don't get to choose the hard lessons that life brings to each of us along the way. I guess in the end what matters most is how we rise to the occasion. My friend has walked through the past weeks and years without bitterness, managing to laugh and find humor even in the greatest moments of stress. I admire her so much. She inspires me to want to be a better person, a more graceful person.
Wherever you are today, whenever you happen to read this post, I would deeply appreciate it if you could send love and prayers for healing to this special lady who deserves a million more chances to show the world what she's got.
If she was here with me right now, I know my friend would ask me to pray not only for her - but also for everyone else in our world who is suffering... to send them my compassion and love as well.
Girl, I'm doing it right now in your honor. Love you so much!!!
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