Happy Days Before My Nightmare

May 8, 2016 (Sunday) Exactly 11 months ago today, I began my nightmare!

Since this is my first post on my new blog about my battle with cancer, I thought it might be important to tell you about me and the reason behind creating this blog before my nightmare began.

The reason…..I actually think creating this blog, writing this post and any other posts are mostly for me. If someone reads this and finds value to my words… fantastic! but all in all, its a release for me, being able to organize my thoughts and feeling in one place as I go through the battles and challenges of my medical journey.

BTW, some of my blog posts will be currently written about moments in the past while other blog posts were written back when I was going through my Chemo journey. I had saved them to use when I finally did create a blog.

Now about me….. I am originally from a small village in Central Java. I was the eldest of four children. Like most of us, we grow up working hard helping our parents put food on the table. We had no running water, electricity or indoor plumbing and when it rained, we had to move the furniture around to keep it from getting wet. There was nothing easy about my life but I didn’t know it because it was the same for everyone in our village. The only real asset we had was our family and friends, we depended on each other to make it year to year. If someone needed something, then the whole village would provide. It was hard but it was our way of life.

The eldest child has the greatest responsibility to help, in all ways as an adult even though they maybe be only 10 or 11 yrs old. Since there is no Social Security, Medical System or Free School System in Indonesia, the children are expected to give back to the parents as soon as they are old enough to work.

So many things are different growing up in Indonesia vs. U.S., as example, in the U.S., children cry to have their own Playstation, Xbox, cellular phone or the latest and hottest toy. In Indonesia, the children cry to go to school as school is not free and most families can not afford it.

By the time I was 17, I was working in countries like Singapore and Saudia Arabia as an au pear and sending my money home to my parents. It wasn’t until I was 20 did I get an opportunity to come to the U.S. and eventually become a U.S. citizen!

I was a healthy, active and living the life of a young 36yr woman. I went regularly for pap-smears, mamograms, ate health, and continued my gym club membership so I could keep myself physically and mentally healthy.

Reading through my post, I actually left out a very important point. I had always experienced very painful every other mentrual cycles.

In Dec. 2014, my father caught sepsis while having prostate surgery that I had encouraged him to have to keep him from being incontinent. I immediately flew back home to be by his side and find the best doctors to cure him. I took almost two month before my father was cured but his body took a beating. I was so happy to see him healthy again.

While I was in Indonesia helping with my father I began to have pain in my abdomen and back as if I was on my period but wasn’t. I really got more concerned as the pain continued once I got back to the U.S.

So I made an appointment with my G.Y.N. which begin my journey.

BTW, you probably guessed English is not my native language so please forgive me for my misgivings of English. I promise I will get better at this challenge they call writing.

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I listened to this song everyday while I was going through the rough and tough days. Hope it empowers you as it did me.

Fighter (Kane Roberts):