Sometimes we just need to be there!

So I apologize for the quietness guys. I have been in Cape Town for the past few days helping my mom out. She was unfortunately diagnosed with colon cancer last week; luckily though it was caught early enough that they could literally cut out the section and stitch the colon together again.

My mom is a strong woman and she wasn’t going to let this stop her, she went in on the Monday and was already home on the Tuesday night (after major abdominal surgery). She was though still in major pain though from the surgery, and although I had to leave my own family at home sometimes we just need to be there for our loved ones.

I flew down the day after my mom told me she was diagnosed with cancer, at first plan was to just fly down the weekend to be here for this week. But when she called me and said she had no one to go with her to the ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) nurses meeting; I knew them all had to step in and be in CPT for my mom.

Although again, I felt like this year has been one of my worst, I had to “switch off” – turn my emotions off and focus on being strong for her, because she needed me. Sometimes that’s all we need to do, is just be there for our loved ones.

Again I have seen this as another lesson from God, again showing me that life is important, treasure it and don’t waste it, because in a finger snap, it could be jeopardized or taken away.

I really battled in the beginning with the fact that I got diagnosed with a mental illness, but I have started to learn to embrace it because to fight it is pointless and it’s a waste of valuable time – instead I would rather choose to spend my time with loved ones or teaching others that it’s ok and we can ‘just live life as normal people again’.

So I guess this short but sweet blog, is just me telling everyone I am still here; and that we need to learn to embrace our mental illnesses and not let it define us as individuals, that we need to put our own emotions aside when a family member needs us to be their pillar of strength.

SMIS out!