My best friend for the last 19 years is receiving cancer treatment. She was first diagnosed with Acute Meyloid Leukemia in August 2010. She beat it that time with her husband, two daughters, parents, sisters and nephews by her side in our hometown hospital.
This time, her doctors sent her to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Although people from North Dakota travel often to Mayo, it is no closer to her than it is to us Kansas. So, we decided to pack the car and take the one complete weekend my husband has off until Christmas and go.
It was wonderful.
Just like last time, seeing her face made me confident with every bit of myself that she would beat this, go home and watch her daughters become women.
But this time, I got to give her that feeling, too. I walked into her hospital room without my walker. I was upright, steady and taking normal steps.
She cried happy tears. We both healed a little in that moment. And I know we will be well together soon.
She is in remission right now and will be able to leave the hospital soon. For awhile she’ll stay in Rochester and be monitored twice daily. Soon she’ll be able to go home and she’ll be able to be home with her girls for the holidays and their birthdays. She will return to Mayo in January for a stem cell transplant, which will give her body a chance to grow new, cancer-free bone marrow.
She’s got this.
Separated at Birth 