Danelle Fights Cancer

The words every cancer patient wants to hear at follow up visits. August 25th was my first 3 month follow up since ending treatment in May. The doctor said that everything was looking good, and we would see her back in another 3 months. It has been an interesting past 3 months learning what living looks like after a cancer diagnosis. Our family has been busy.

We went to Kentucky over Memorial Day to see family and friends we had not seen for several years. Noah graduated high school in June, and we celebrated him completing his Eagle Scout rank in July.

We then boarded a plane to Cozumel and spent a week there doing the touristy things with friends.

Sweet friends from high school came to see me in July, and we spent the weekend at the beach together. Ben started a new job at City Barbeque and is saving up to trade in his Rav 4 for some kind of truck.

Leah Kate is running cross country and did well in her first meet this week. In late August, we moved Noah into his dorm room at NC State. Ben and Leah Kate started school soon afterward, and it seems they are settling into a new relationship as siblings with it just being the 2 of them in the house. Work has been busy for Barron and I, but it has been good.

I don’t know if I will ever get to a point where I will say I am thankful for my cancer diagnosis, but I do know that I am beyond grateful for what I have learned over the past 9 months. I am thankful for each day I have with my family. Whether it is the big things like graduation, 1st day of college, 1st day of high school or just the mundane things like opening a debit card account, working together to cook dinner or teaching them how to clean, I am thankful I am here to experience those things. I am thankful, and quite honestly still blown away, by the ways people showed up for my family through meals, visits, and calls/texts. The way we were loved and cared for was amazing.