Surprise!!

So Mr. Wonderful went to Phoenix last week on business and to visit with his family and they plotted and schemed and lookie what I got!!!

Isn’t she the greatest!? She is a Maltipoo, she’s six months old and I named her Katie. I have wanted a little dog for a few years now and it was just never the right time. When I got diagnosed with cancer we began looking a bit but I am glad that it didn’t work out until now. Treatment was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be and a puppy would have been a lot to deal with.

But not now!

Because yes, you guessed it! Today is the final day! The last cancer road trip selfie. We are headed to my last radiation treatment and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I have my best friend by my side and we are finishing what we begun 10.5 months ago. It has been quite a ride and there are many scars and a few burns to show for the adventure that we have been on. But by the grace of God we have finally arrived at this day, this moment and I am thrilled to say that the cancer treatment chapter of our life has come to an end.

It’s time to rebuild and to take what I have learned along this road and to use it to make mine and other peoples lives better. I am excited to jump back into life with my family and to remove some of the load that Mr. Wonderful has been carrying for a very long time. Life looks a lot different than it did last December and I want to live it to the fullest.

While I am far from being done at the Willamette Valley Cancer Institute, my visits will be more infrequent than they have been over the last several months. My radiation team really made the home stretch a lot easier to bear. As you can imagine they have to be very good at the technical side of their job. The thing that I didn’t expect from them was how great they were with the patients they were serving. I watched over and over again Jeff, Morgan and Richie treating each and every person in their care with respect and dignity. They laughed and joked with me as well as paid very close attention to the reason why I was there in the first place. They like their jobs and they like the people they are serving and it is evident in every interaction they have. It made a huge impact on me because I think it’s rare to be both good at the technical and the personal. When you see and experience people doing it right it gives you hope and courage to keep on going.

This is how I feel right now. I have a life to be lived, I have people to love and I have a plan to love and serve others better than ever before. Stay tuned because the adventure is far from over. In fact, it has only just begun…