Life Goes On!

This week has been pretty amazing so far!
Started with an onchologist visit, and I was able to negotiate my chemo start date: Monday, Jan 16 2012!
I hope that I can navigate (or even better, negate) any side-effects from the therapy, such as nausea or hair loss, and maximize the benefits, eliminating completely my tumor. Keep the prayers and positive thoughts coming. Believe me, they work, they make me feel like God is always on my side, and He trully is, keeping me strong and positive.
Some work related friends organized a lunch for me yesterday and it was so energizing! It is amazing to experience the genuine happyness coming from people that see me for the first time after surgery and see how well I am.
Following lunch I spent the afternoon with another work related friend, a cancer survivor but most importantly an amazing individual who epithomized a phrase I learned recently: we don't make new friends, we simply recognize them. This person, who I met in October of last year, was a guy I felt I've been friends with since childhood. And I didn't even know he was a cancer survivor at first. Now we openly share stories and deeply care for each other.
I finally closed the day at a Happy Hour with several College classmates, some of who I haven't seen for years as I had been in the U.S. for the last 10 years. I obviosly gave them an earful for not getting together in my absense. I told them that we should not need someone to have a brain tumor to get together. Life is busy, we all have families and jobs to care for, but letting friends behind for those reasons are false dicotomies, terrible and unexcusable mistakes! Life is too short, and we need to have constant moments of celebration to relive the good old days and to create the great new days of the future. This applies to everyone!
Today I spent the day at the park with my girls and my mom (shouldn't she be part of my girls list?). They rode bikes while I tracked along walking. Isabel is almost riding without training wheels, I can't wait to see her riding without training wheels! After biking we had some ice cream and came back home.
I've been trying to stay as active as possible, socially, physically and mentally.
I just downloaded the biography of Henry John Heinz into my Kindle, and what a great read! Pittsburgh and its citizens fascinate me, I've read about Andrew Carnegie, Henry Frick, Mellon and Westinghouse, but of all the amazing people that changed the world from Pittsburgh, Mr. Heinz is definitelly the best! I am really proud to be part of his legacy and to be an honorary Pittsburgher.
Speaking of honorary citizenships, I've been claiming French citizenship since my rebirth on Dec 13-2011 in Montpellier, Framce. Yesterday a friend gave me a music box that plays the Marseillaise, what a thoughtful present! I think that the only missing component now is my French soccer jersey to cheer Vive le France during the World Cup in Brazil! It is possible (and great) to have 3 nationalities in your heart! I will be wearing Brazil, U.S. and France next year, may the best one win!
The key take-aways I want you to take from this post are:
- Everything is possible when you are surrounded by people that love you and people you love
- Life is too short so enjoy every second of it as time is the most precious resource we all have
- Treasure your friends from all your walks of life - they will never let you down
- Immediatelly send an email, tweet, facebook message or call a friend that you haven't seen in a while but that you think about often and schedule a dinner with him/her - the group may get bigger as you talk about it but do it right now. Trust me, you will not regret it!