Free Ugg Boots Giveaway!

A great giveaway has been brought to my attention. Would you like to win a pair of Ugg Boots? Whooga is giving away a free pair and every entrant gets 15% off! How awesome is that? All you do is go to http://www.whoogaboots.co.uk/ukugg.asp?p=freeuggboots and grab the badge and enter the info. It's pretty simple. So go sign up!

I'm Not Afraid Anymore

I really am not. I think all this time I have been still afraid of facing cancer itself. I faced it yes. I dealt with it head on but during my time of being sick I didn't search for things on it. I didn't read other people's blogs about it. I avoided it and dealt with only MY particular situation. I didn't want to hear of other's battles with Hodgkin's because it made me fear what happened to them might happen to me. It is scary because you really don't want to start to compare yourself but you can't really help it. You see a symptom they have and say hey, do I have that symptom too? It's not good and 18 months into remission I have learned that it's ok. I can read other people's stories and I am not really scared anymore. I know my story is just that. Mine. I dealt with things in my way and other people deal with it in theirs. I can't explain why something happens to one person and not another.

I created this blog to draw people here to help them but now I finally feel safe enough to not only draw others here but to go out and seek others too. I can read other blogs. I don't stress as much about it coming back. It's not like I sit here and say it won't ever come back or that I won't ever get another cancer but I think it doesn't consume me anymore. I will deal with whatever life throws my way on my own. I will deal with it as it comes and not a moment before. What is the point in sitting here wasting your life stressing about what may or may not ever happen? It's hard to not stress but it's never done me any good in the past and that hasn't changed. I think my life is about helping others and I believe the further I go in life the more that will show in my actions and words. It's why I want to be a nurse and I have never felt so strongly in my life about anything but that I am supposed to be a nurse and go into Oncology. I know it will be hard but it's what I must do.

I just sat here last night reading through blogs and looking at cancer related things and realized four simple words. I'm not afraid anymore.

This Looked Liked Fun

Every now and then I find a quiz or something on someone's blog and I find it amusing so I do it too. Thanks to Bill over at My Piece of Paradise for this one. I couldn't resist. I'd say it's pretty accurate. The only one I really show my emotions to is my hubby so he may disagree with that part. Honestly though he's the only one who ever sees that side of me. If you do, feel special. I tend to keep my hurts and things like that to myself.

Lets101 -

Well That's a Relief

All of the blogs I am following have now returned to my reading list. I may be busy these days but I do browse through a whole lot of the updated blog posts in my reading list and read read read. I am glad to see the google error has fixed itself because it really had me panicked. I don't know if I could go back and find all the blogs I read!

Anyway I am reading through my American Heart Association BLS for Healthcare Providers book. That would be my CPR class. I do more than that though. I am certified at the end of this class to use an automated external defibrillator. That is a bit nerve wracking but I think this is a skill I need to have regardless of my profession. I am pretty glad about it. So I am going to be doing this Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. with only small breaks during the day. I got a paper in the mail that said they won't be giving out large breaks like for lunch or anything because there is too much to cover in this class. Crazy. I just need to study this book NOW so I can do it all when I get there. I like to be prepared and when I am not I get nightmares literally.

EEEEEK

OK someone let me know if they are experiencing the same google error as me. It is showing me on my main blogger page as NOT following any blogs. I follow a whole lot of them. I am a bit nervous as to why my list is suddenly blank!

Fellow Hodgkin's Fighters

As a person who has fought Hodgkin's I know the battle. You hear a lot that it's a highly curable cancer with the right treatment and you also hear "If you get cancer, this is the one you want to get" which truly is an irritating statement while at the same time does offer some comfort I suppose. The statistics are fairly good but you still have cancer and you are still in pain and suffering. My husband and my children are the only ones who saw the full extent of my suffering. It wasn't good but I responded quickly to the chemo. The fear with the treatments available are the fact that there are more long term risks associated with it. So even though the cure rates are good there are fears of the treatments themselves causing yet another cancer years down the road. So my battle with cancer I hope is over but there is always that thought there.

I am sharing today other Hodgkin's Fighters. First of all is a blog I read all the time called The Journal of a Prizefighter. This is one strong man let me tell you and an inspiration at that. He has relapsed and then gone through transplants and other treatments to fight this disease that can be so not the cancer "you want to get". It was through his blog today that I found the blog of another Hodgkin's fighter. His mother used the blog to write about her son's experiences. It was posted today that he has passed away. He lost his battle. You can go here to offer your condolence. I think having a lot of replies to her post to show that people care would mean a lot. I know it would to me. Here is the link: Eric's Updates: Allogeneic Transplant for Hodgkins.


Thank you all for checking out these other Hodgkin's blogs. I come across many noteworthy ones out there in the blogging world. I find others who seem to have fought even harder than I did, pregnant or not. I have found a lot of comfort and strength through other's words and I feel that is why I am out here too! I want to give even one ounce of hope to someone else fighting this battle.