Doing OK and Making my Life

When I started keeping this "diary", I was thinking of writing some words in English every now and then. For some reason (laziness?) I haven't. And we also found the translator (it's not good, I know!). 

I just want you to know, that I'm doing ok: the cancer hadn't spread to any other organs, all (tumors were cut off - there were all together four of them! Right now I try to think that I'm free of cancer - safe and healthy, at least so far.

I have already had two out of six "big" chemos (docetaxel) plus I'm having Xeloda (oral) - only one docetaxel and three CEX to go! The last chemos will take place in early August.

I still got my own hair (not all, but enough) and I have been feeling quite good all the time. Not perfect, but well enough. I'm still working, too.

There are two good old texts in my files, that I want to share with you guys:

 How to Make a Life (by Jennifer Pastiloff)

First: Take everything you’ve ever learned and everything
you’ve yet to discover and place it in a box labeled “Thank You.”

Second: Take a picture of your face and remember
that in ten years time you will be amazed at how gorgeous you were.
Be amazed now.

Third: Find someplace to live.
Make sure it has the ability to let light fall
across the room in such a way that every so often,
you’ll stop and mouth the words “Ah, sunlight.”
Don’t let the books get dusty.
Open them and reread your favorite sentences.

Fourth: Fall in love.
Touch. More than you think.
Have a child if you want one.
If you don’t – don’t.
Let your child out into the world,
discovering for themselves just how magical it is.
Or it isn’t.
It’s theirs to decide.

Fifth: Get a job.
Remember this job is not who you are.

Sixth: Do yoga.
Let your body discover what it’s like to move
without your brain holding its hand.
Tell your brain to take a hike.
Let your body believe fully in its own powers.
Let every person you’ve stored inside your muscles out
to breathe now and again.

Seventh: Do things that make you feel good.
Let your joy be contagious and spread through
your home, your job, your children.
Let it spread through the world like a virus,
so that when you forget it,
every so often, you’ll catch it from someone else.

The impetus that drove me to write this piece was sadness – and, yes, a bit of self-pity – yet from it, the manifesto of my identity was born. - Jennifer Pastiloff

How to Stay Young (This is an old one, but works just fine again!)

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.