It’s time for another one of my oddball lists.  Yes, just like that one I wrote many moons ago about all of those things I have learned since Kindergarten!  Here’s my “New Normal” List of “Stuff I Know” —

— Hot flashes and night sweats come straight from the Devil, and are actually Hell here on Earth

— Cruciferous vegetables really can cure just about anything that ails you

— Stubbornness is a key survival skill: it helps you pop back up and keep on keepin’ on after one surgery, two surgery, three surgery, four…

— Crying is healing.  No, really, it is!  Even my GP points out that crying due to emotional upset releases toxins from your body and then raises your endorphin levels.  That being said, yes, I cry.  Sometimes from happiness, sometimes from the fears that dog my heels after this past year.

— Laughter IS the best medicine.  There were a lot of chemo sessions that were followed up by Lara and my sis and I lying around laughing over side effects, symptoms, and (let’s be real) dirty jokes.  Whatever works. 🙂

— My body is a stranger to me now but, we are getting reacquainted.

— Knowing that my Melanoma risk is really high because of BRCA1 does more harm than good.  I wore sunblock religiously before, now I wear it in an OCD kind of way.

— The contradictory one: soy spikes estrogen levels, and is therefore considered bad news for Breast Cancer, and yet miso paste is pretty much a huge superfood when it comes to cancer prevention and battling it.  I don’t understand it, but I think it’s good news.

— My youngest, now that the worst is behind us all, is a little obsessed with my mortality.  It’s very difficult to have these big serious discussions with a six year old and not break down crying.

— My eldest, my old soul of a girl, has become a child for the first time since she was 5 years old.  She has two parents she relies upon (even though my Lara is not biologically her parent) and it has worked WONDERS for her confidence and playfulness.

— Cancer is a brutal bitch.  And that brutal bitch saved my life, and saved me from myself on many many levels.

— I will probably be a licensed nutritionist by the time this year is over, just to help save my family from that brutal bitch I mentioned above.

PRAYERS HEAL, PRAYERS NURTURE AND CRADLE, and PRAYERS DO MORE TO CHANGE THE NATURE OF DISEASE THAN ANYTHING ELSE.

Obviously, the caps lock indicates what has been, for me, the most important detail of what I know.

Blessings and prayers and love to you all…