Connected to Everything

The other night, I went to the movies and saw "My sister's keeper", a story about a young girl with Cancer, and her sister who was born in hopes that she is a match to her older sister, and can save her. It's a touching, heart warming and sad story, and for many of us it had us leaving the theater at the end of it in tears.

I was crying for certain parts of the film, like when the young girl meets a friend, a guy who reminded me so much of my friend Patrick that lost his battle against cancer in September of 2007. The young girl battling cancer, reminded me so much of myself and what I went through. The bone marrow biopsies in the film made me cringe, the moment she mentioned that she had APL (Acute Promylocitic Leukemia), which is a subtype of AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia). There I was in the theater, feeling ultimately connected to this young girl, who was fighting for her life, the same way I did when I was diagnosed with final stage Leukemia. (Just a note: There are 7 sub-types of Acute Myeloid Leukemia. I sufferred from Acute Promylocitic Leukemia. M3 has the highest peri-induction mortality rate. More people die during the first few doses of chemo than in any of the other sub-types! And did you know that 1/3 of people diagnosed with Leukemia, don't have symptoms! Wow, just like me!) As I continued to watch the movie and the young girls' trials and tribulations and decreased immune system, I saw how sick she was, and knew that when I was at the hardest part of my battle, I looked like her. I remember being in the hospital and hearing people tell me how sick I looked, how pale and yellow my face was, and how as my health improved, I was regaining color back in my face.

There was so much signifigance in this movie, to what I experienced in my battle against cancer, and it touched me in so many ways - mentally, emotionally and physically. As I continue surviving and thriving in my life after cancer, I have lots of time to look at the past 2 and a half years. Re-evaluating the way my life once was and the what my life has become all because of this intervantion from God. I feel connected more than ever to God, and to my great friends & family, and to my newfound love of life.