This year has a theme...

Unfortunately it is CANCER.

Last year ended with news one of my favorite high school teachers had breast cancer, and on Dec 24 she lost her battle.

Yesterday, my 42 year old cousin also lost her battle to cancer and left a beautiful, amazingly strong 15 year old daughter behind.  My heart breaks for them and I wish there was something more I could do.  Medicine has such a long way to go and I pray within my lifetime we find a cure or at the very least a better way to treat cancer so that tragic stories like this become a rarity instead of common.

Unfortunately, bad luck struck 3 times for me this year and another cousin (32 years old this time) is suffering from stage 4 breast cancer and was recently put on hospice.  She has taught me more than she could ever know about living life to the fullest.  She never passed up an opportunity to be with her family on vacation and often said "I can be sick at home or sick ____(fill in the blank with vacation destination).  She was given 3 months to live almost 2 years ago!  Nothing makes me happier than proving a doctor wrong.

I feel truly blessed to be able to interact with patients at such a vulnerable time in their lives, and my understanding of their situation has increased exponentially over the past few months although I am the first to admit I don't really know how it feels to lose a mother, wife, daughter, etc and my heart aches.

Thank you Terre, Karrie and Christi for allowing me to know you!