Letting Go Of The Anxiety

This week has gone by quickly and so has the last four years.  I am finally able to talk about my husband's cancer without crying or feeling great anxiety.  Since January of 2014, I have slept every night.  I can rest my head on my pillow and count backwards from 100.  I am sleep before I hit 95.  It has felt so good to sleep.  I feel so relaxed these days.  My husband is also relaxed and we are enjoying life.

I am so relieved that my husband is doing better.  He had a good checkup at Md Anderson a couple of weeks ago and the pain of the past is fading.  We had a good encounter with the medical team.  We are making new memories.  My husband asked me if I felt better after venting my concerns about insensitive remarks and frustration with medical jargon.  Yes, I do feel better.  We can not change the past, but we can learn from it.  

I had the opportunity to listen to a lecture by Dr. Christina Meyers a former professor of Neuro-Oncology at The University of Texas Md Anderson Cancer Center.  It was about cognitive function of cancer survivors.  I felt so much better after listening to her talk about the research that has been conducted.  It helped my husband and I understand some of his cognitive issues he has experienced.  I wish that we had been able to listen to the lecture a couple of years ago.  I believe this information could have relieved a lot of anxiety.

I have met a couple of cancer survivors this year that have also experienced a lot of cognitive problems.  They were at a Leukemia Lymphoma conference.  They said the cognitive issues had greatly affected their life and relationships.  It was good and sad to hear that other cancer survivors had struggled as my husband did with cognitive problems.  They too talked about some of the bizarre things they said and did.  It is sad that cancer patients not only deal with the anxiety of cancer, but they also deal with side effects after treatment.  I pray everyday that we continue research to find new treatments that are less toxic to the body.

We need to always remember that people are more than their disease.  They are holistic human beings  and we need to be more understanding of their side effects from not only the chemo treatments, but the anxiety that comes from just living with cancer.

Life is so unpredictable and we live each day the best we can and keep our dreams alive.  Our dreams give us energy to live for tomorrow.

Life is beautiful!!

Elizabeth:)