warrior

October 6, 2019

Warrior has been on my wrist daily since late August of 2018 when my Pops was diagnosed with lung cancer at 82. We began navigating the trials of cancer treatment in October. Radiation and chemo...over and over cycle by cycle. Wearing Warrior reminded me to be strong for him when he couldn’t be for himself. Then December 16th he had to be admitted to the hospital with some complications after finishing radiation. The next morning I received a text from my mom asking me to take her to the hospital with abdominal pain. My heart broke when the doctor came back and said the pain was caused by a blockage in the intestines that required surgery but they also found a mass in her colon. Suddenly Warrior is now my reminder to be strong for both of my parents. Surgery the next day resolved the obstruction but the surgeon wasn’t able to get the entire mass as a small part was too deeply embedded. We waited all the while running between two hospital rooms for two days for pathology to show the tumor was malignant. At that point Pops was declining rapidly so we were able to get them into the same room. To see both parents clinging to life while each worrying more about the other than themselves and witnessing 63 years of love and devotion to each other was heartbreakingly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed. Pops passed away 4 days before Christmas and our focus shifted entirely to seeing mom through recovery and a path forward for her own cancer diagnosis. Winter was rough for her but she is the toughest Warrior I have ever known. For now she is doing well enough and the residual cancer is too small to even show on the scan so we are not pursuing treatment at this time. We put on our Warrior straps every day and remind ourselves to live every moment as if it could be our last with her. Warrior has helped me and my entire family through the darkest six months of my life and I will be forever grateful that I found Zox and the Warrior strap and to Shannon McGuire for creating it. It means the world to me.