What a Difference a Year Makes

The morning of Oct. 21, 2010, I was doing some last minute packing for a long-awaited vacation to Las Vegas.  My husband and I had been married there two years before, and my 22 year old son was coming with us because he was finally old enough to go to the casinos.

My son didn’t feel so well, and the doctor had said he might have a virus, so I called his dad and asked him to pick him up.  We agreed that if he felt better he could fly out the next day.

By the time I landed in Vegas, his dad was taking him to the ER.  He was walking unsteady and showing problems with coordination. (Similar symptoms as an ER visit to a different hospital 3 weeks early, but without the extreme nausea and headache he had exhibited at that time).  An hour later he was being rushed into emergency surgery with hydrocephalus due to a brain tumor.

I flew back on the next flight to begin months of fear, anger, uncertainty, prayer, and determination along with four surgeries, three rounds of chemo, four weeks of radiation, a couple of ICU stays, and a partridge in a pear tree. . . .

What a difference a year makes.  My son is one of the lucky ones and is a survivor.  Will his life ever be the same as it was?  Maybe not.  But we have met wonderful people along the way who have provided the best medical care and psychological support.  The Cancer Center for Kids and Winthrop University Hospital are amazing facilities.  The Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation is an organization that fills a unique and tragically necessary niche, offering a young adult survivors support group.

Our lives are different than they were a year ago, but we treasure every day.  And I thank God, incredible doctors, wonderful friends, family, and strangers who have all helped us.

My message to you is to never take anything for granted.  Don’t waste precious moments.  Love like you’ve never loved before.  Don’t hold grudges, avoid pettiness, give generously, and smile often.