And the tooth is gone.....

Whoever knew that having a tooth pulled could be such an ordeal?? Well, after a month of tooth pain and several visits to the dentist, the tooth is finally gone, alhamdullilah. I remember loosing teeth as a child, and it was such a fun thing to pull out my own tooth. Well, today I was put to sleep just to yank a tooth. Seems to be a whole lot of overkill, if you ask me.

So now I feel almost ready to get back to school in a few days, after a couple of intense days of writing lesson plans and grading papers that is. I really can feel that so many people are making dua for me. So many things about this whole ordeal have been made so easy, and It helps to know so many people are in my corner.

The latest news from my tests that I had last week are as follows:
I had a new mammogram and ultrasound, and all the doctors and nurses said they have never seen progress like this after only a couple of months of chemotherapy. Two months ago, the cancer was in all my breast tissue, the skin and at least two lymph nodes under the arm. The breast tissue that showed cancer was 11cm across, and from the side view, the size of a baseball. (IBC is not like typical breast cancer in that it doesn't show a lump, all the breast tissue becomes infected.) So last week, I was shown a side by side mammogram (before and after) and now the size of the breast tissue that is involved is the size of a little green pea. There is also no longer any sign that the lymph nodes are involved.

This is great news, Alhamdullilah. I was really worried that they would come back and say there was no longer any sign of cancer. At first, it would seem that one would want to have no sign of cancer. However, knowing that no matter what they said, I would still have to continue with the same treatment, I would have been so deflated to know there was nothing to attack. Going through chemotherapy, it is much easier for me to pump myself up and know that the treatment is doing something.

So, on Wednesday, I start my weekly chemo and herceptin. 12 weeks. I realize that I still have a long road ahead, but now I am putting my focus on just getting through the next 12 weeks. I ask you all to continue to keep me strong with your dua...

My new resolution-

I realize that it has been quite a while since I have posted anything, so I have decided to force myself to sit down and throw out a few things that have been on my mind. While being on this break from school, I am realizing what a blessing it is to be working. Even though working takes every ounce of energy that I can muster, it leaves my mind with only a small amount of time to be idle and I and up getting much more done. So now with all this time, it is becoming quite hard to remain so upbeat.

The break is about over now, and I am preparing for both returning to school, as well as the weekly chemo schedule I will start next week. In getting ready for school starting back and after spending all of this time in self-reflection, I am making the commitment to myself to take more advantages of the blessings that Allah puts in front of me.

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Make the most of five things before five others: life before death, health before sickness, free time before becoming busy, youth before old age, and wealth before poverty.”

I think if we all posted this hadith somewhere to prioritize the things we do daily, we would get so much more accomplished. In general, I think that we focus too much on what is wrong, and not enough on the potential and abilities we have. So then, by saying we are getting older, we feel sick, we have no time, or we do not have enough money, what we do is really enable ourselves not to be doers. In all truth, the people I know who do the most have excuses, but don't make them.

So I am making the intention to strive to be like these people who do not make excuses, and I will do what is in my power to take advantage of my life and the blessings in it.