When I was first diagnosed with cancer, the neurologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston told me that I am going to have a long road ahead of me.  In talking with my doctor at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, she told me this was just a bump in the road.  The travel metaphor stirred up the memory of the first night I sat in a hospital bed as a 33 year old – incredibly scared about what was wrong with me.  It is a tough road to travel.  Pray that God is gracious to us and in the midst of our travels.

One of the things about living in the northeast is that in the winter, the roads go to hell when it gets cold.  An incredible number of potholes develop in Scranton and NEPA over the winter.  It seems like late at night each night there is a tank parade through the streets – except I have never seen the tanks.  I am sure my kids are going to be good drivers because we are going to train them to avoid all of the potholes in our streets.

When the doctors talk about a long road, sometimes it feels like I am traveling on a NEPA street instead of on a regular street.  It has been a bumpy road.  Although we missed most of the potholes, we have hit some that have left lingering damage to our vehicle.  There have been financial potholes we have hit.  We have hit relational potholes in our marriage and family.  We have had to reorient our life to adjust to the cancer road that we walk.

If blasting my brain with radiation is a bump in the road, we are working to let it be just a bump and not a pothole.