Monday, April 11, 2011

Lessons Learned

          Some people when they are diagnosed with cancer all of a sudden realize how important life is. For me I realized that I need to change certain things. It's kind of strange some of the things I realized after my diagnosis. One of the things was the pleasure in drinking water instead of soda. Before I got sick I would drink tons of soda, to the point if I didn't have a soda I would got through caffeine withdrawal.
          When I had my breathing tube removed I had difficulty drinking liquids. Because of my damaged vocal chords I could not swallow correctly. If I drank liquids I would choke on it as it was going down. So it took a couple of weeks to retrain myself on how to drink liquids. Let me tell you, you don't realize how much you miss drinking liquids until they tell you you can't and make you drink thickened drinks. After about two days of drinking thickened drinks, I swore to myself when I am able to drink water again I will never stop.
          I am not going to lie, the moment I got the okay I drank so much water it wasn't funny. To this day I probably drink 10 to 12 16oz. bottles of water a day. There is no better drink, in fact I don't even really drink soda now.
          Another thing I learned was that there is no reason to work as much as I did. I was working probably seventy hours a week, sometimes working twenty four hours or more straight. For what, money? I was being run down and beat up. It was not worth it. I realized there are more important things in life than making money. What's the point in making money if you can't enjoy it? So I vowed whenever I go back to work that I am only going to work forty hours, no more. I need to enjoy every moment of everyday.
          Probably the biggest thing I learned was that I was given a second chance at life for a certain reason. I have a purpose. I am not 100% sure what that purpose is yet but I am trying to find out. I believe that it has something to do with cancer. Maybe it's something small, maybe its something big. But whatever it is I will find it and do it. Cancer has taken the lives of many people who are just like me. It tried to take me but it didn't succeed, so now it's my job to make my life stand for something.

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