[pharaohgeek]

8 years cancer free and counting. Here's the truth of it: It's going to SUCK. There's no sugar-coating it. There's no way around it. You're getting poison injected into you and hoping that it only kills the bad stuff. The hospital I was treated at has a world-renowned children's hospital, so, thankfully, the children who were fighting cancer were in a separate building. I would've lost it had I had to see kids fighting alongside me every day. It's a horrible disease, and no child deserves to go through all that. It's incredibly disheartening to think about.

That said, I kept focusing on getting through it. I recognized a lot of people had it far worse than me. My cancer was in a muscle. So, radiation wasn't as bad as it would've been for, say, a brain tumor. Surgery was somewhat painful, but that part of the body can take a beating so it wasn't as bad as it could've been. I tried my best to remain thankful that it wasn't as bad as it could've been.

I mapped out my treatment weeks on a calendar so I could see progress and how much closer I was getting to being done. I focused on my kids and staying strong for them. It was extremely hard on them, so pretending to be positive made it easier on them, which in turn made it easier on me. Lastly, I set a goal. Something to look forward to when everything was DONE. When I told the kids I was sick they, of course, lost it. When everyone stopped crying I said that I think we'd need a big vacation after treatment was over. We settled on Disney World. Talking through it with them and saying, "When this is over..." helped a lot. When we finally did go you could see everyone in the family visibly relax because psychologically the fact that we were there meant things were DONE.

Best of luck to you. Stay strong. Get healthy.