“I have come to think of my cancer diagnoses, as my universal reboot. Weeks before my first cancer diagnosis, my anemia problem was growing worse due to increased bleeding, while I was adjusting to a new role at a job I was trying to feel better about. I had been unhappy there for some time, and crazy stressed by new responsibilities that I thought were just the thing to fulfill me as an Inventory Control Specialist.

May 6, 2013 I checked into the hospital for a hysterectomy that would end the horrible bleeding I was experiencing. The doctors were so sure I just had vicious fibroid tumors. As I awoke from the anesthesia, I saw and heard my surgeon say, through my foggy state, “We found cancer.” They found 4^th Stage Metastatic Endometrial Cancer. They found the neck met, the next day in a CAT scan, as well as 3^rd Stage Triple Negative Breast Cancer in one breast. What a sock in the face! Two advanced cancers. My excellent cancer team administered a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. The PET scan follow-up showed no signs of active cancer, my oncologist told me.

I get a call a couple weeks later, from my internist. There was a tiny bright spot that he noticed on the scan. I had Thyroid Cancer. Might as well make it a triple. So, out went my thyroid gland. I took the radioiodine treatment, a standard treatment for thyroid cancer, and that cancer resolved, as well. No more cancer activity in my body.

As I was getting the treatments, recovering from cancer and the treatments, new people and opportunities began to enter my life. I joined a cancer support group and met two dear friends. We know we were all meant to meet each other. The bond took effect so quickly. Had the three of us not had cancer, at that time, in that city, seeking that support, we probably would never have met each other. I formed many new relationships that started with the common denominator of cancer, but developed into deep connections of caring and trust among individuals.

I lost my job in the course of receiving treatment. Yes- in the course of receiving treatment. It happens to people with cancer, more than it should. Truth is, I wanted a different job anyway. I was miserable in my position, for quite a while, but never made the full commitment to myself, to change that situation. My thinking is that, I was not on the true path for my life, so the universe did me a solid, and stepped in. Universe: “Yeah, uh, Cindy is not getting it. Time to pull out the big guns.” So they did.

The gift of my getting cancer was it stripped away all the things that prevented me from living true to myself. The spirit-draining job, trusting the wrong people, and keeping a toxic friendship. All of them had to go, so I could give my all to fighting cancer; not to struggle uphill for things that do not enhance my life or my spirit’s happiness. Cancer’s “gift” is different for each person. Look for it to propel you into your own life’s truth.”