When one suddenly finds out they've got stage 4 cancer, it usually means they've unknowingly had it for awhile. With 5 young children at that time, soon after surgery, it struck me one day that I probably had cancer while pregnant with many of them.
When I realized that, it felt as if a bowling ball, falling from the top of the sky, had landed hard (very hard) in the pit of my stomach. Had I passed on lung cancer to my children during pregnancy? I remember forming that question in my mind, but getting the words out to the doctor was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Asking it was worse than trying to run in a dream. The thought of unknowingly hurting one of my children in such a way was...worse than...it was worse than I can even try to explain.
Then the doctor answered as best they could in English and drew a diagram to help me understand better. Essentially, the cancer hormone/protein/or whatever it's called is too big to cross the placenta! So, none of my 5 children could catch it from me!
If relief were a fountain, I was a geyser. If Mt. Everest itself could represent the height of the geyser, that definitely would have described me!
It was SO GOOD to learn that lung cancer CANNOT cross the placenta! Praise God!!!!!!!!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tanabata 2010
Last night, 7/7/2010, was Tanabata. Tanabata is a special time of year when two stars cross paths in the sky. In Japan, it's tradition for couples to dress up in summer kimonos and go out to watch the twinkling stars. Most of Tokyo, the largest city in the world, turns off its lights for Tanabata. People also adorn bamboo boughs with a variety of beautiful decorations and brightly colored papers where their deepest wishes are written.
Last year, about 2 weeks after my brain surgery, my husband and I were asked by the hospital staff to fill out 2 pieces of brightly colored paper to place upon the brain surgery wing's bamboo bough. We decided to write our greatest wishes. We wrote the promises God had made us (I will write more about how those answers came later in another post). The promises were 1.) that I would, against all odds, recover from this and 2.) that I'd not only recover, but that we'd go on to have our 6th child too.
There are so many details, yet, suffice it to say, this year at Tanabata, we have a lot to celebrate. I'm now cancer free and 25 weeks pregnant. Last year, the three of us, my husband, my mom (who had flown in from the USA to help take shifts with him at the hospital), and I (after a nurse helped me dress in a deep plum summer kimono adorned with pretty pink and white flowers) went to the Tokyo Tower together. We took pictures and, due to my health, we were given special permission to skip the extremely long ticket line out front. This year a different version of the three of us (my husband and pregnant me-in the same deep plum summer kimono, yet a tad frumpier looking this time) decided to go to the Tokyo Tower again and take pictures in the same places we did last year.
I'm going to have to search for those pictures from last year, yet I cannot wait to post them here plus the new ones we took this year. Taking this year's photos was definitely one of those "Oh my goodness! Thank you, thank you, thank you, heavenly Father" moments!!!!!!!!
Last year, about 2 weeks after my brain surgery, my husband and I were asked by the hospital staff to fill out 2 pieces of brightly colored paper to place upon the brain surgery wing's bamboo bough. We decided to write our greatest wishes. We wrote the promises God had made us (I will write more about how those answers came later in another post). The promises were 1.) that I would, against all odds, recover from this and 2.) that I'd not only recover, but that we'd go on to have our 6th child too.
There are so many details, yet, suffice it to say, this year at Tanabata, we have a lot to celebrate. I'm now cancer free and 25 weeks pregnant. Last year, the three of us, my husband, my mom (who had flown in from the USA to help take shifts with him at the hospital), and I (after a nurse helped me dress in a deep plum summer kimono adorned with pretty pink and white flowers) went to the Tokyo Tower together. We took pictures and, due to my health, we were given special permission to skip the extremely long ticket line out front. This year a different version of the three of us (my husband and pregnant me-in the same deep plum summer kimono, yet a tad frumpier looking this time) decided to go to the Tokyo Tower again and take pictures in the same places we did last year.
I'm going to have to search for those pictures from last year, yet I cannot wait to post them here plus the new ones we took this year. Taking this year's photos was definitely one of those "Oh my goodness! Thank you, thank you, thank you, heavenly Father" moments!!!!!!!!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Introduction
It was about a year ago when we found out I had stage 4 cancer. We live in Japan and our 5 young children (at that time ages 2 to 11) were emergency flown out of the country to be cared for by my husband's side of the family soon after the first tumor was discovered. I had collapsed, needing surgery, and was unable to take care of them. A week after surgery, the stage 4 diagnosis came.
This is a blog that I am putting together to share how this...I don't know what to call it...has gone and what we've learned. I am hoping it may also help others too. I don't know how to do a blog. Hopefully it will get pieced together as time goes on. Presently, we're over half way to having our 6th child. At age 38, I'm 23 and a half weeks along. I figured I ought to get this blog going, and, maybe by the time baby number 6 is born, I'll have caught up to speed with how blogging works!
Welcome aboard! May God breathe peace into your soul. He IS at the "steering wheel" of everything.
(The blog may stamp the time this post was published at. Considering time differences, it is just after 7:30 PM here.)
This is a blog that I am putting together to share how this...I don't know what to call it...has gone and what we've learned. I am hoping it may also help others too. I don't know how to do a blog. Hopefully it will get pieced together as time goes on. Presently, we're over half way to having our 6th child. At age 38, I'm 23 and a half weeks along. I figured I ought to get this blog going, and, maybe by the time baby number 6 is born, I'll have caught up to speed with how blogging works!
Welcome aboard! May God breathe peace into your soul. He IS at the "steering wheel" of everything.
(The blog may stamp the time this post was published at. Considering time differences, it is just after 7:30 PM here.)
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