Life is precious.
Life is finite. No one knows this
more than a cancer patient. And while
most of us have much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving, Kristina is thankful
for being here on Thanksgiving. That and
oh so much more. To have gone three
rounds with one of the most aggressive cancers over 16 years and feeling pretty
good on this Thanksgiving Day leaves her somewhat shy on words (which in and of
itself is a rare event!).
On the news front, she met with her new doctor and team and
she’ll have appointments every 2 weeks for the next 6 months. Her current condition is good – very good –
and improving with exercise and fresh air being on the daily schedule.
In a chat yesterday, Kristina wanted to express her
thankfulness. Her thankfulness cup
runneth over for many reasons. She
picked the right year to have her 3rd round of AML. She picked the right place to have it. She picked the right community and the right
caregivers.
None of these things were her choice, and yet that’s the
circumstance she finds herself in and thankful for. After years of little progress, treatment for
AML has come a long, long way in recent years.
And there’s no better place than Fred Hutch to get the very best care,
leveraging great talent with the recent medical advances.
And the community and caregivers (and it’s at this point
during the conversation during our chat when words melted into quiet happy
sobs. Words weren’t there. Replaced by emotional thankfulness). Kristina
knows how lucky she is but doesn’t know the ‘why’. Why 2023?
Why near Fred Hutch? Why the
greatest tribe one could hope for and why so many faithful and helpful
caregivers.
Kristina wanted to say ‘thank you’ over and over and over
again. A couple of others in our
community didn’t survive to see this Thanksgiving Day. Others are in their own battle with this
miserable disease. But on this day,
Kristina is deeply thankful. We all
should be. Kristina knows she could not
have done this alone.
Happy Thanksgiving
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