Things I am Thankful For - Not Just on Thanksgiving but Everyday

1. Being Alive.  This past year has taught me that even when things are not going well, at least I am alive to experience them.  What I once considered a bad day pre-chemo is now one that I wouldn't mind having.  Perspective is everything.
2. My New Perspective On Life.  I always thought I was living in the moment and experiencing everything, cancer has a way of making you want to go out and do things sooner rather than later.
3. Modern Medicine including chemotherapy, anti-nausea medicine and stool softeners.  Yeah, I said stool softeners . . . chemo can really mess with that.  It is on the long list of side effects.
4. That I was able to find out who really cares and who could care less about me.  Sadly it had to take cancer for me to really see peoples true colors.
5. For the Best Sisters a girl could ask for.  I have no real sisters (or brothers for that matter) but I found the best surrogate sisters online.  They all have breast cancer too and they "get it" in ways that only someone who has been through chemo, surgery and radiation can and it is a place where I can "talk" about anything and I mean ANYTHING no topic is too gross or off limits with these lovely ladies.  I am sane today because of them and love them more than I ever thought I would love a group of ladies I never met before in real life.
6. That I am done with chemo and am PFC.  PFC is Post Final Chemo, one of the many cancer related acronyms and some people use a different word for the "F"
7. That I chose to do chemo first and felt my tumor shrinking away after each treatment.
8. That I have good insurance, really good insurance.
9. The many years that Julie brought happiness into this world.  She is missed terribly but every minute she was here she made the world a better place.
10. That I was not injured when a 20 year old kid ran a red light and plowed into my car totaling it.  Cars are replaceable, I'm not.
11. That insurance is giving me a fair value for my car.
12. Turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.
13. Coffee, and that I can drink it now despite a 6 month chemo induced hiatus.
14. Disability that allows me to pay my bills while recuperating.
15. The Internet . . . what did we do before it? 
16. That one day I will have hair again.
17. That despite losing my fingernails and toenails that my nails are growing back.
18. That on chemo I never once vomited.  I had IV antinausea medicine, antinausea pills, backup antinausea meds and even backup of the backup antinausea meds.  And every time I saw a doctor or chemo nurse they would ask if I had nausea and reinforced several times that today there is no reason for me to suffer with nausea.  Vomiting during chemo is now history.  Not to mention that half of my chemo treatment didn't even cause nausea/vomiting.
19. Pinterest.  When my stomach wasn't feeling well I had to totally change my diet and often didnt know what I wanted to eat.  Pinterest with tons of pictures of food really helped me think of new ideas for things to eat.
20. Western Toilets.  This can be filed in the random files . . . somehow I managed to remember a toilet I saw in China.  I'm not even sure how to use this toilet (I had to go but chose to hold it).  That reminded me how thankful I am for western toilets.

I'll admit I started this blog post around Thanksgiving but never got it posted (I have a lot of drafts) . . . I know I have more things to be thankful for but I will post this now so that I don't forget about it again.