Did You Lose a Bet?

Lets start out with a funny experience  from the past week. As many of you know, my father decided to shave his head to support me! I was totally surprised when I saw him. My dad came downstairs to show me his bald head while I was playing cards with my friends. Right after the shock of it all wore off, I looked at my mom and said, "Don't even think about it". Two bald heads are enough for the Lee household. 

Anyway about that funny experience. So my dad goes to work with a shaved noggin, and of course people notice something different. A co-worker approaches him with a smile and says, "Did you lose a bet or something?!". My dad just looks at him for a second and responds with, "No.. actually my son has cancer...". Hahahahaha. I thought that was so funny for some reason. Not that we get offended by stuff like that, but it is funny to see people in awkward situations. 

The second round of chemo is done. Hallelujah. If we are being honest, I really do not want to go back. I don't know how some people go in for treatments for a year. The nausea is just horrible. They told me it is a lot like morning sickness for pregnant women and now I will totally have sympathy for my wife. Sheesh. If she wants french fries at 2am? I am there. It is so annoying how much my appetite changes. I can't even describe it.

The next step in this crazy journey is getting a cat scan!! They will check on the size of the tumor and see if it is small enough to perform surgery. If it is shrinking, but not small enough yet then I will be doing more rounds of chemo... BOOOO. Hopefully it has shrunk enough to just get surgery. That is what I am planning on. 

Well I am trying to learn another life lesson. I know... so many lessons to learn. President Calderwood (my former Mission President) called me before my first round of chemo. He actually had cancer in his twenties also, just a side note. We were talking and I asked for some advice from him. I did not hear what I wanted to... He told me that I need to learn how to have sympathy for the people around me during chemo. I might feel like I am suffering way more than those around me, but he encouraged me to reach out and care for them anyways. Psh I did not want to hear or do that. Sometimes you just want to have a pity party, okay?! But of course.. he was right. There is something magical about serving the people around you even when you are suffering. I am not perfect at this by any means, but it is the right idea. Something to put into practice. Jesus Christ was actually really good at this, imagine that?! In Matthew 4:11 it talks about how He received comfort after being tempted by the devil, and fasting for forty days/nights. Well a modern day translation of that scripture from a living prophet teaches us that Jesus actually sent those angels to comfort John the Baptist while he was in prison! Jesus just went through A LOT. He was drained physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Yet he took the opportunity to comfort someone that he loved, in stead of Himself. What a great example.

We all have trials but it is my belief that we "can-cer vive" anything that life tries to throw at us. Just remember that life is whatever we make it. I choose to make it good, cancer and all.