Been waiting 2.5 years

They said, one day I would wake up and just feel good again.

I didn’t know exactly what they meant when they were telling me this because feeling good seemed like such a faraway memory that I hadn’t felt on a consistent basis for 8 years. 

There was no logic…no constant…there was was no way for me to know how I would feel one day to the next. Some days I felt great, then the next day I was in bed all day from over doing it when I felt good. And on my most terrible days, I thought I this whole bone marrow transplant was the worst thing to ever happen to me…even worse than the 3 brain surgeries.

Maybe 6 – 9 months after my transplant, I started having a few more good days compared to the bad days. I still had no control over what days I would wake up and need to fall back asleep for an additional 4-6 hours, or wake up and feel great.

I was having about a 50% average for good days verses not good. There were varying levels for both the feel good and feel bad days. 

Some feel good days, I was able to do an errand or two, OR go to the gym, OR lunch with friends, OR paint, OR write, OR watch TV or a movie and actually follow along with the plot. I say OR with such importance because I have to remember where I truly was to completely appreciate where I am now. 

Some feel bad days, I simply couldn’t get out of bed because I literally had no energy. Think of the flu without body aches…just the pure exhaustion. I always tried to get up in the morning with my husband and son before school drop off, but some days I couldn’t. Other feel bad days I might just sit on my couch and watch TV all day or would be so tired that I couldn’t sleep which would make me nauseous so I would take a phinigrin which would knock out the nausea but also knocked me out.

Than around my 1 year new birthday, my feel good days got a little better… I could do a little more without crashing afterwards. I was still averaging about 50/50 feel good vs not, BUT I had more spunk on fee good days! I still had pretty bad days too, but I was getting used to this and knew after a few bad days, I would bounce back.

From this 50/50 point around 1 year post transplant up through today…which is 1 week shy from my 2.5 transplant birthday…have gradually been gaining more energy, more focus, mobility, and overall health.

I still have bad days, but I think I am at about 80% good days!! Every day is still different on the energy scale, but the energy swings aren’t near as dramatic as they once were and I can kinda tell before I am about to crash and modify whatever I need to in order to avoid a full crash…most of the time.

Back to what I said at the start of this story, they said one day I would wake up and feel good again… I have stepped into that reality!! 

It hasn’t been anything like I ever experienced before with all the chemos, radiation and surgeries, so I never knew what to fully expect… I had no personal outline on becoming myself after bone marrow transplant. 

One major lesson I have learned in these past 2 1/2 years of healing is I have the ability to choose what I focus on. Which in turn, can instantly change your turmoil to inner peace…. or cause a massive inner storm.

So what does all this mean?

No matter what you are going through, there IS something good to focus on. That something good might be hidden deep in you under years of hurt or sickness but I beg you to keep digging to find your sparkly peaceful energy amongst the layers of life settled on top of it because there IS something good to focus on.