After a year’s hiatus from blogging about my cancer journey, I’m baaaack!
Maybe I got too busy to keep writing. Maybe I ran out of things to write about. Maybe I just wanted to put it all behind me and move on.
Whatever the reason, I’ve got the writing bug again, so I decided to create a real blog – woo!
I entered my past blogs (from CaringBridge) backdated in their chronological order. Many people wrote beautiful and uplifting comments (and I’m a Words of Affirmation gal!) that I couldn’t carry over, so feel free to repost them! 🙂
One thing that I think motivated me to finally do this is that I experience a significant milestone yesterday – I was able to donate platelets once again. I had to wait for at least a year post-chemo to donate, and I was worried that my platelet count wouldn’t be high enough to donate, but I did it! My iron count was 13.4, and I gave a triple donation!!
They were so sweet at Bloodsource too – they brought me balloons that said “Welcome Back” and passed out Oreos to everyone to celebrate!
I used to give whole blood every couple months until my Father-in-Law, Clarence Gray, became dependent on platelets to ward off the effects of leukemia in his last years. Platelets (and God) were literally keeping him alive.
So I decided to try giving platelets instead of blood, and discovered it had many benefits:
- I wasn’t as tired after donating
- It felt like it was a tribute to Tina’s beloved dad
- Turns out, I’m a platelet rock star, with an exceptionally high count and able to give triple donations!
My foray back into platelet donation was a big milestone for me and got me reflecting on my journey. So here I am back, wanting to share more.
I may not write about cancer all the time now, but I definitely draw inspiration from my journey, which affects just about everything I do in the aftermath.
Karen's Cancer Journey & Beyond 