Charmed Life, Meet Cancer

When Life Hands You Lemons, Write a Blog - by Michele Mann

“You Have Cancer.”

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This is going to be a Mini-Blog since I just wrote a blog last week and would never dream of boring my lovely readers with too much information.  I couldn’t not write about the significance of this week.  Do you know what today is?  It has been exactly 1 year.  January 20, 2014, my husband took me into the ER early afternoon.  My very first blog, Charmed Life, Meet Cancer, goes into more detail of those scary and very unexpected days than what I’m going to do here.  But I am in awe that it has already been a year.  Even more so…I’m still alive.

January 19, 2014

Scott Mann has very eloquently named this picture ‘The Last Supper.’  This was our annual M3 Makeup Party that took place at Opa on the night of January 19, 2014.  What an unforgettable night it was.

A tradition that happens every year is that I give a heartfelt speech to my team members.  I don’t even like public speaking but somehow it keeps finding me and I’ve now come to enjoy it more and more.  What’s so strange about this particular speech is the content.  Listen to what I say.  Was it foreshadowing?  Did my subconscious know something big was about to happen?  Maybe just a coincidence.  I don’t know.  But listening to it now is a little freaky to say the least…

Finishing out the night with comedian, Kevin Nealon.  Ignorance is bliss and I love that I got to spend my last few hours of normalcy with this group of wonderful people.
January 20, 2014
We had a 3 hour wait in the ER at Celebration Hospital.  (Even though when Scott looked online it said 20 minutes.)  This is the first time needing to be in a wheel chair…in my entire life.  
The pain in my leg was so incredibly painful.  And because they still didn’t know what they were dealing with, I hadn’t been given any pain pills to help alleviate the pain.  My poor husband felt so helpless at my cries, screams, and shaking uncontrollably.  Finally they gave me morphine.  Would you believe that it didn’t get rid of the pain?  They kept trying things until they had to put me on a dilaudid drip which is some powerful stuff and helped the pain somewhat.

This is what long hours at a hospital, being scared for your loved one, and getting no sleep will do to you.  I love this face so much and I’ve hated what this has done to us.  But there are plenty of good things that have come out of it as well and we have grown as a team.  If we can make it through this, we can make it through anything.

January 22, 2014

We were given news that I never thought I would hear in my entire life much less at 30.  “You have Cancer.”  Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia with PH Chromosome.  They needed to move me to Florida Hospital.  This is Scott in his car following my ambulance after receiving the news.  I felt like I was in a nightmare.  How could this be happening to me?  That’s what anyone and everyone thinks in these situations.  The pain was so intense in addition to this horrible news that it was just too much.  I don’t know how I got through it that night or any of the following days, nights, months, and now year.  I still question how I do it.  (What is it?  It’s everything, too much that could never be explained fully.)  But here we are…one year later and I’m still here.
So here’s my testament.  Live each day fully.  Love your life.  Never put off tomorrow what you can do today.  Give love as much as you can.  Remember, giving just feels great.  Makes you feel alive and it’s so sad the people that may not understand this simple concept.  Try it out and see what you think.         
As I end each blog, remember to smile often, love more, forgive easier, pray harder, and laugh as much as you possibly can!   

Filed Under: Fighting Cancer

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