Ultimate Wealth

I am a recent non-Hodgkin’s and colon cancer survivor.  At the age of 31, I have truly lived a life-time of challenges faced with uncertainty.  I wanted to start writing again, to share my story of cancer and life after cancer.  Like any stressful moment in anyone’s life, I think many people will relate, with or without ever having cancer.  It’s more then cancer… it became a state of mind for me.  I once read that our attitude is the best decision we can make everyday, and I live by this. 
 
Two years ago, I was re-diagnosed with cancer.  Prior to that I was fortunate enough to meet an amazing trainer and friend, Ray Burton, who throughout my cancer treatments, trained me, encouraged me and supported me.  I did copious amounts of research based on health & fitness during cancer treatments, and in conclusion knew that somehow I had to keep training with Ray, even if we walked on a treadmill, I had to keep going.  I had to keep my heart strong and my body strong so I could receive the treatment and drugs with the least side effects.
 
With every diagnosis and treatment regiment, the side effects are different for everyone, so I could not expect to be amazing each day, running marathons like other cancer patients that I read in books… Maybe I would never be inspirational or do amazing things, but I could do amazing things for me, I could inspire myself to want to be living a better life.  I could reach as far as I possibly could to get up every morning and walk a few steps outdoors.  I could go to the gym and walk on the treadmill or do minor body weight bearing exercises.
 
Now imagine your entire life has changed by the small word of cancer, a small word with huge lingering consequences.  How do you get up everyday?  Choices; we make them everyday.  I had to decide to keep going even as the cancer spread, I had to keep my head up and keep going.  I surrounded myself with amazing people who supported and encouraged me daily.  Again, my attitude was always positive no matter the outcome.
 
I won’t pretend like I had great days all the time or even most of the time, or that I was not depressed and wanting to give up; it was all part of the cancer equation.  But my choice was to go to treatments; my choice was to continue trying, my choice was to continue believing in better days.  I still look in the mirror and wish for where I was before cancer, before the weight gain, hair loss and tiredness.  I have many goals still to accomplish.
 
In the end we all have choices we make.  Do we want to be healthy and make time for what is important to us?  Being healthy was extremely important to me.  I wanted to beat cancer; I wanted to feel as good as I did my first time after cancer remission.  My state of mind definitely fluctuated and affected what I was going to accomplish each day and how I was going to feel about what I accomplished each day.  So as I originally stated: “your attitude is the best decision you can make everyday.”  I think we can all relate to that.
 
Leanne Christie

Calgary Alberta