A Life-Changer

Typically, every January 1^st I review my prior year’s list of goals and mark off those I’ve accomplished and add to the list my new goals for the new year. I’ve been doing this for at least 30+ years. I never expect to complete everything, but figure I accomplish far more by having the list than not. This year was different. There was no list, just the dread of 2015.

Most of you already know that our daughter, Jana, was diagnosed with breast cancer in late November. It took me a week before I could say those words without crying. If it wasn’t believable then, it is now. We’ve been with Jana on her initial visits to both the City of Hope and UCLA and a follow-up visit to UCLA where she is receiving her treatment. A couple of weeks ago we spent the day with her as she received her first chemotherapy treatment and we’ll be returning to LA next week to accompany her to her second chemo treatment. We talk to her several times a day (as we always have) and, although not wanting to worry us, she shares some of what she’s experiencing: migraine headaches (a rare side effect experienced mostly by young women with cancer), blurred vision (also associated with younger patients), nausea, and most recently, hair loss.

Through this devastating experience to date, Jana’s strength and her wonderful sense of humor (she considers a handicapped sticker for her car one of the benefits of having cancer) have shone. Her concerns have been more for her immediate family (Lauren, Verne, and me) than herself. That same tenacious spirit she showed at law school and more recently with her career are present once more…she will be a cancer survivor! I’ve included the following pictures, because they seem to say it all: this past weekend when her hair began to fall out, she and her friends, Nicole and Jashwal, tried out a few new hairdo’s. The experience was not without tears; according to Jana, there was just a “little” crying.

I continue to be hopeful that at some point in the future we’ll look back on this experience and find something good and positive that has come from it. For now, we’re just trying to cope with this life-changing event with lots of love, laughter, and good times together (according to Jana, another benefit of having cancer is seeing her parents more often).