Cancer’s Unexpected Blessings

“…experience will convince us that those things which at the time they happened we regarded as our greatest misfortunes have provided our greatest blessings.” ~ George Mason

Finding out you have cancer, or a health ailment is shocking.  It is like having a tornado rip your life apart.  It seems as if the foundation that your life is built on- your health- has been demolished.  It is one of the biggest trials a person can face.  In the initial stages, there are far more questions than answers.  You go into “survival mode,” doing what you need to do to get to the next day. 

While I was in this stage, I thought about almost everything- from surviving to dying.  One thought that did not cross my mind was the blessings that I would discover existed in my life. 

I have written in previous posts the overwhelming support I received from family and friends starting the day I found out I had cancer.  That has, and continues to be a source of strength and encouragement for me. 

Over the Fourth of July weekend, I received an e-mail from someone I didn’t know, and had never met, but who had been directed to my blog.  Her name was Jessica, and she told me we had a lot in common.  My first thought was it was a marketer trying to pitch something.  As I kept reading, Jessica told me she too, had thyroid cancer and she had surgery to remove her thyroid on the exact same day I did.  She shared her experience with her cancer and surgery with me.  She told me she lived in a town about 60 miles from me. Jessica has a three-year old daughter, who is about six months older than Cole. 

After I read Jessica’s e-mail, I remember sitting down, and feeling something switch in me.  I felt really happy.  Not because Jessica had cancer, but because there was someone else that felt the same way I did about cancer, and was going through almost the exact same thing I was.  Jessica had a great support system, as did I, but now we had each had someone else who was experiencing the same thing.  We didn’t have to explain anything to each other- we just knew.   

 We e-mailed each other during the next month to stay in touch.  When I was extremely hypothyroid, Jessica confirmed what had happened to me was not right, and she had been receiving Synthroid (the thyroid replacement hormone) since three days after her surgery. 

We discovered we were both scheduled for our radioactive iodine treatments (RAI) within days of each other.  Jessica started hers on a Friday, and I started mine the following Tuesday.  We both hated being quarantined and being away from our children for so long.  We told each other when we were both finally recovered and better we were going to meet and celebrate.

Jessica had some awful side effects from the RAI that lasted for a while.  One of which was her taste was completely gone for a month.  We both had our full body scans (to determine if the cancer had been contained) within days of each other in August.  We both received the news in the same week that we were cancer free!  

We will continue to have our six month check-ups at the same time, forever. We both did what we had to do to get healthy, but having Jessica’s support and friendship during this time was a blessing I never anticipated.  How many people are able to have a friend like this, at the exact time when they are needed?   Jessica is my cancer fighting partner in crime!  We were finally able to meet each other in person on Saturday.  

Jessica and I

Cancer has taught me there are always unexpected blessings in life, no matter how bad, or shocking, or dire the situation is.  I thought cancer had shattered my health, my foundation.  Cancer and diseases can destroy health, and take away almost everything.  But they will never destroy fortitude, and the love that family and friends provide, and this is the real foundation in my life.

Blessings can be found in the most unexpected places, from the least expected sources.  They are there waiting to be found, sometimes hidden beneath the seemingly broken pieces.  It all depends on where you look.