Good morning everyone, and happy fourth day of Blogmas!!!
Today I wanted to do a bit of a different style of post, and talk about something that is really important to me: my family.
Earlier this year, my aunt was told that one of her kidneys was riddled with tumours that were thought to be cancerous. After seeing my grandmother through intense cancer surgery and recovery two years ago, my family was in pieces over this. The doctors believed that the tumours had formed inside her kidney and were pushing their way out, and it needed to be removed as soon as possible.
My aunt called to tell us this news, along with the harsh reality that 95% of cases seen like this involved cancerous tumours, and these tumours had a nasty way of spreading to other organs.
She was scheduled for surgery in January, but thanks to a last-minute cancellation, she was able to go back in November. She has now been at home recovering for several weeks, and last night we got the call that the hospital had tested the removed kidney and figured out what was wrong.
It turns out that my aunt was among the lucky 5% whose kidney was not overrun with cancerous tumours. Instead of pushing out from the inside, these benign tumours had formed around the outside and started pushing their way in. While the kidney still needed to be removed, this meant that my aunt never had cancer.
This is my Christmas miracle. Knowing that my aunt did not have cancer, and therefore would not have to worry about it spreading to other organs, is all that I needed for Christmas.
So often I, like many other people, get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, and forget what Christmas is truly about. In the words of Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch, “Maybe Christmas . . . doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
So while so many of us are out shopping for presents, decorating our homes, and stressing over what to make for Christmas dinner, I hope that we can pause for a moment and think about the things we are thankful for this year. Learning that my aunt did not have cancer is a Christmas miracle, and I am so grateful that she will be here this Christmas and hopefully many more Christmases to come.
Now it’s your turn: What is one of your Christmas miracles, from this year or previous years???
Literary and Lovely 