2014 in numbers

By all accounts, 2014 was not a good year for me.  You can look at it any way you want:  backwards, upside down or through rose-colored glasses.  The final answer will always be:  not my best year.  There’s a long-standing joke amongst musicians that singers can’t count past four.  To prove that theory wrong, I’ve quantified the events of this year.  As you will see, most of the quantities add up to much more than four!

In 2014, I had:

• 50 doctors appointments
• 4 surgeries
• 7 blood draws
• 4 rounds of chemo
• 8 medical procedures/tests (scans, heart tests, x-rays, etc.)
• 4 shots of Neulasta
• 33 doses of radiation
• 1 giant hematoma
• 1 medi-port
• 1 bald head for 4 months
• 2 surgical drains
• 6 surgical scars
• 1 violent reaction to morphine
• 0 endotracheal tubes inserted (victory!)
• 4 LMA’s used
• 5 IV’s started (6 attempts)

I took:

• TONS of medicine!
  • 7 different prescription medications
  • 9 over-the-counter medications
• The most I ever took at once was 6 medications

See, I CAN count!  And it WAS a bad year.  But tucked in amongst the bad, there were quite a few good things, too.

I received:

• 30 “Get Well”, “Thinking of you” cards in the mail
• Over 200 emails from friends and family
• 61 meals brought over a 4 month span by 28 people
• 3 prayer blankets

I was blessed to have:

• 40 friends attend my farewell party
• 2 oncologists and 1 surgeon that were top-notch

Most importantly, I was lifted up in prayer hundreds and hundreds of times throughout the year.

Although I would have preferred to have not gone through this experience, I can say that the good in my year equalized the bad.  Thank you to everyone for the inumberable support.

2015 is bound to be better, right? 😀