Anniversaries are weird. I don’t mean the marrying kind, I mean the cancer kind. “Cancerversaries” as some call them. One year ago, I heading to the hospital to do my lung biopsy, making a dinosaur out of pipe cleaners for the doctor, thinking everything was fine. The next thing I know, I’m overwhelmed with surgery and treatment and stages and everything else. It’s been a lot to go through this past year.
The reason I say it is weird is that I feel I’ve grown and changed and adapted, but I have so much more to go through. I’m a little over a quarter of the way through targeted therapy, I’m looking forward to being able to be done with that and get life back to normal, but what is normal anymore? I will always be a cancer survivor for the rest of my life. Every scan, every cough, every pain, that thought will be there in the back of my mind. Maybe not prevalent, maybe not even noticeable, but it will be there. Looming in the background like a bad dream.
In other news, I’ve been focusing on dog training recently and have been working with Maia. We are taking Advanced Obedience classes and working on various new training skills at home. She’s smart and I’m looking forward to getting her into therapy dog work. It distracts my mind from everything else going on and she’s a great companion.
Last weekend, I went to Columbus to the State Special Olympics competition and it was my goal to do my best and finish my races. I struggled on Friday, when I did my 100 IM as I was having a lot of muscle cramping that day, however I did finish my race and got 4th place. On Saturday, I swam my 50m Freestyle and got 2nd place! Overall, I had a wonderful time. Getting back into swimming was a goal of mine after surgery and while surgery has affected my breathing and targeted therapy has affected my speed/stroke, I enjoy it and did my best in spite of my hinderances.