My second favorite day of the year.

I don't usually post about anything other than weight loss here on my blog, but today is my second favorite day of the year. 


On August 30, 2005 I was officially told by my Gyn-Oncologist that I was cancer free. So today is my 6 year cancer free day! 


So, let me back up a little. I've commented a time or two that I had cancer, but I don't usually elaborate on it. I'm not sure how much I'm going to elaborate about it now. It's not that I don't want to talk about it, because I will tell anyone the whole story from start to finish if they ask. It's more because I don't want to lost sight of what my blog is really about....you know, losing weight. 


Anyway, I was 22, living with my friend, and enjoying my early 20's.....really, I was really, really enjoying my time. 


One day I woke up in blinding pain in my right side. Later my room mate and one of our closest friends convinced me that it was really weird to have that kind of pain out of no where.  They really talked me into going to the doctor. 


Long story short, a doctor in the office, my doctor, and an OB/GYN all told me I had a fibroid cyst on my uterus. I had tests and the whole 9 yards. They told me that I should be fine and millions of women live with fibroids. I, however, was not fine. I couldn't eat because I would puke like 10 minutes after eating and I was still in pain. So, I pushed for them to do surgery. That was all in February of 2005. 


On March 22, 2005 I had surgery. When I was in surgery they realized that I didn't have a fibroid on my uterus, but cancer in my right ovary. It turned out to be a yolk sac tumor. I was diagnosed at stage 1C. I was really the last to know that I had cancer because I was knocked out when I was diagnosed. My family knew before I did. (Total other side note, my dad had been diagnosed with cancer in November of 2003, so it was a huge, sad mess when I was diagnosed too. The day I was diagnosed was actually the day that my dad was having his retirement party/ceremony for work.) 


I had to have 6 rounds of chemo. I did four of them in house (I checked into the hospital and was on a continuous chemo drip for about 3.5 days) and I did the last 2 rounds out of the chemo room at my doctors office. 


It truly is a crazy story and sometimes I think it was happening to someone else, because I'm not quite sure how I made it through. Through everything I did realize that I was strong person who could really handle anything and that I have a totally amazing family and totally amazing friends. People were showing up out of the woodwork to help me and support me.

 The moral of the story is to listen to your body! If I had not pushed for surgery the doctors would have let it go. I was at such a low diagnosis stage because I knew something didn't feel right. The doctors basically told me that the morning I woke up in blinding pain was the time the tumor started growing. 


So, that's my little side story that has nothing to do with my desire to lose weight. You never know though, I did join the gym after I found out I was in remission. I mean, it was about another 4-ish years before I started getting serious about the gym, but hey, we all have to start somewhere.