grateful/courageous/hopeful

Well here I am again. It's looking like this is now an annual ritual-- writing a blog post on my bone marrow birthday to say that I'm moving along just fine and life is good. Three years ago I was given the gift of a second life. The good nurses and doctors at UCLA replaced my worn-out Lymphoma-riddled stem cells with my sister's healthy cells, saving my life and allowing me to happily say that I'm still cancer-free three years later. My last PET CT Scan in August showed that I was cancer-free so my sister's stem cells did their job. I'm still on a small amount of daily anti-rejection medicine and I go to UCLA for regular check-ups every couple months.
So I'm happy to say that, relatively speaking, my medical life is pretty boring these days.
In other news, I've started a new job, completed a 100 mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe, returned to snowboarding, played golf for the first time, spoken in front of 300+ people at a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society event, celebrated my first year of marriage with Kurt, traveled to 5 states and made even bigger travel plans for next year, hosted a fundraiser for LLS with Kurt (where we raised over $5K!)... all in the past year. And I'm just getting warmed up.

I look forward to sharing my story with people at LLS events in the coming year and raising money for this worthy cause. I'm excited to celebrate 2 years of marriage with Kurt in December. I look forward to spending the holidays with my family and Kurt's family in Ohio and Chicago. And a trip to Europe is in the works for next year with Kurt and his parents. I look forward to all the little and big things that will come my way. If I've learned anything it's that life is full of surprises.
The name of this blog won't be changing since I'm more grateful and hopeful than ever before.  Every day I'm reminded of how lucky I am to be here. Though some days it takes a few reminders for me to see that through daily stresses and worries. I'm hopeful for the people who are fighting cancer and going through treatment today because I know too well what they're going through and hope that one day no one will be told that they have cancer.
Until next time... Good health and good wishes to you all!
Cassie