Cancer Sucks!

As mentioned in my previous post, my trip to the Philippines wasn't just laughter and smiles. The last three weeks of my trip was plagued with shocking news, sadness, anger, and many, many tears.

On the 29th of December 2012 my beautiful sister, Blanche (middle, pictured here with me and our common friend Rechel), suffered a seizure. The doctors thought at first that it was an aneurysm. But the MRI confirmed otherwise: she has a brain tumor.

It seemed rather unfair. My dad passed away four years ago of kidney failure. And now this.

The day before she was to be operated was, without doubt, the worst day of my life. Since the procedure was very dangerous, we weren't sure if she would even survive it. I held her hand while she was laying in the hospital bed. And I cried. Here was my sister, she looked normal, yet inside her was something that was slowly taking her life away. I was scared that this would be the last time I would see her alive. I told her how much I love her, and that she has to be strong. And fight. For me, for our family, and especially her son.

By God's grace she survived the operation and is now back in our childhood home in the Philippines where my mother and brother and nurses are looking after her and helping her regain her strength in preparation for radiation therapy and chemotherapy. So far she is fine, which is more than I could hope for given the circumstances.

Yet we will never really know the outcome until we find out how she responds to the treatments, and what stage the cancer is already in. But miracles happen, and every single day I pray for one.

Cancer sucks. I wish it never existed.

And here I am back in Norway living my life as if everything were normal. But it's not. The thought of me not being there to look after my sister, my best friend, depresses me. The thought that one day my sister might be gone is something I am not yet ready for.

It's funny how priorities change when someone we hold dear succumbs to a grave illness. I went back to the Philippines thinking of nothing but getting some sun and cheap shopping. I went back to Norway with apprehension. I didn't want to come back. I wanted to stay in the Philippines and be with my sister and the rest of my family now that they need me the most. And I know one day, not too long from now, I will.

Blanche, I will come back in July and spend your birthday with you and the whole family. This is a promise I will never break. I will stand beside you and fight. And together we will pray. We will see this through.