10 years ago today, I had Cytoreduction Surgery with HIPEC chemo bath (about 50 rounds of chemo heated to 120°+F dumped directly into abdomen while you are shaken by doctors for 90 minutes) - the surgery removed 11 full/partial organs, and my prognosis wasn’t good. I was only given a few months to live, and told there’s only about 20% of patients who make it past 30 days after the surgery... and less than 7% make it a year without a return of cancer and eventually death. 

 

We made all of my funeral arrangements, put together the final touches on my advanced directive, and made sure we said HAPPY goodbyes... just Incase. It was agonizing. 

 

But then I woke up. Then I didn’t die. Then we made it a year with no return. Then 5, 8, and now 10. 

 

We beat the odds. We beat Mucinous Adenocarcinoma with Pseudomyoxoma Peritonei (a big fancy word for an aggressive type of Appendix Cancer.). 

 

Though I still have some unsettling complications with my now shortened bowels, my uncooperative bladder, restless kidneys, and the scarring that has marked me for life - some of which lands me in the hospital for weeks on end, I am so happy. 

 

Happy I get to see Avigail grow up, in ALL her breathtaking beauty. 

 

Happy I get to laugh, kiss, and love on my husband. 

 

Happy we get to live life together, serve the Lord in missions in our joyous work, have a tribe of friends who are true lifers, touch and smell the earth that God so lovingly created for us to live, breathe in air that comes with no explanation except a loving Creator. 

 

Every single thing we try not to take for granted. 

 

Babe, we beat the odds. They’re no longer stacked against us. We are survivors. 👏🏻❤️🙌🏻