Counting Our Blessings - Linkup

It's been quite a while since I did the Counting Our Blessings Linkup but I thought today was the perfect time to restart our little linkup parties!

As many of you know, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer months ago (goodness, how many months? Seems a lifetime now) and that I started chemotherapy in October of last year. After six treatments, I had a pet scan and was told that they saw no cancer except in the uterus.  They did the hysterectomy last Tuesday, March 24th (exactly one month after my last chemo treatment) and, Praise God, they found no cancer anywhere except a small spot in my uterus - which is obviously gone now! Praise Jesus!! My doctor's were amazed and delighted. My Oncologist is a Christian man - a praying man - and that was such a blessing as I went into this battle. Prayer is one of the biggest weapons we have. Even when I wasn't able to pray for myself, I knew others were.

Honestly, I still haven't absorbed this. When I was told I had stage 4 uterine cancer - that it was aggressive - I didn't have a lot of hope that I would actually ever be cancer free. I'm still trying to really hold these words in my heart and accept them.  I know I am in remission and that I won't actually be considered healed until I'm cancer free for 5 years, but I am choosing to live in the moment and find joy that they found no cancer. This is such a huge, huge blessing and I thank the Lord every moment of every day for bringing about this miracle!

I lost my hair early on in the chemo but now it's coming back. Not only that, but it's coming in all white! My grandmother had and mother has the most beautiful white hair so I was really hoping I would get this gorgeous white hair, too. Please don't let this picture frighten you but I wanted to share that indeed my hair is coming back!

Can you see those little hairs? My son calls it's my newborn baby hair! 😂 You can see I have no eyebrows or eyelashes, but those, too, will return. To counteract this frightening picture, let me share a picture of my beautiful grandmother.

See what I mean about her gorgeous hair? So seeing my hair coming back is another blessing. When you lose your hair, it's hard to believe it's going to return but it is!

I had so many people praying for me. I received cards and gifts and words of encouragement and that was a blessing! To be remembered when you are going through something like cancer is really important. It's a lonely, isolating disease so to get emails, notes, and gifts is such an uplifting thing. Another wonderful blessing.

Speaking of isolating, I was isolating way before all this Coronavirus started. When your immune system is compromised, believe me, you stay home as much as possible. The fear of getting sick is something on one's mind constantly. So when all this started, I was a pro! I'm used to staying home and, thankfully, I'm a homebody and an introvert, so this has not been as hard for me as it might be for someone else.

I am so blessed by my sons, who have been with me through this every step of the way. My youngest son went with me to the hospital for my surgery but they had started the new rules of no one but the patient in the hospital. Oh my goodness, that was so hard for me. However, he stayed close by and I was treated so wonderfully by everyone in the hospital. It was quite eerie because there was hardly anyone there but I also got a lot of attention and it was a good experience. I did have to have a unit of blood but all went well and I only had to stay over night.  Another blessing!

I hope you'll participate in t he linkup. It's so wonderful to focus on our blessings and share them with others - especially right now when we are all needing a bit of encouragement. So share on the linky below a post from your own blog that will bless others!


Blessings - Julie