10 years
I almost missed it. Late yesterday evening I remembered it was 10 years ago that I had my nephrectomy. 10 whole years is pretty damn amazing.
My life is so different now that it was 10 years ago. I don’t mean in the major ways. I’m still married to the same man, still live in the same area (albeit in a different house,) still have the same lifelong friends.
But, so many other things are different. I am so much more self-assured. I have embraced my 40s and I’m happy about who I am.
In 2008, I was much less likely to tell you how I felt about things. Now, I pretty much lay my feelings out. You don’t like it? You’ll get over it.
Life is too short to not take chances. I faced down the possibility of dying from cancer, the real risk of dying on the table during my nephrectomy, at 33.
I put my feelings out there. Sometimes it blows up in my face, but I’m tough, I pull it together.
I love harder now. I tell my friends I love them. Between the cancer bullshit and losing people, I need people to know they are loved. You never know if you will have tomorrow to tell them.
About the time ten years ago they were wheeling me into my room, I was on the municipal pier tonight waiting for the boat parade with one sister, and three of her children.
I was getting hugs from the kids and happy even though it was cold out there.
Katie was only a Mom of two back then. Boo was a baby. Two of her kids I would have never met.
10 years is so long. In the average lifetime, that is almost 1/7 of a life.
I have become stronger, made so many amazing friends all over the country, and the world.
I became a photographer (literally, I didn’t take many pictures 10 years ago, Tony always had the camera. Nor did I have an idea I would have won two VPAs.) I was still years away from buying my first DSLR.
10 years and a few hours into the next day.
December 2nd, 2018 at 5:54 pm
Hooray, you’re doing Holidailies!
December 2nd, 2018 at 8:15 pm
Ten years! You give me hope. I underwent chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma this year. I’m now in remission and hoping to remain that way for many years.
December 3rd, 2018 at 6:47 pm
It’s amazing at how much can change in a decade!
December 3rd, 2018 at 9:29 pm
A decade seems so long when you’re facing it, and so short when you’re looking back. Happy nephriversary.