A Tale of Turning Your Lemons into Opportunities...
Hi Trevor here, with our first blog post of the year. This post was actually an inspiration from a brain tumor sister and friend of Brenda's. We always like to give credit, where credit is due.
Brenda is passionate about sharing her story. She has a knack for being creative in doing so. As you can see from our title, we are going to explore lemons.
First off, yellow is Brenda's favorite color. Her bedroom while she still living at home yet, was painted with Lemon Whip walls. She had a yellow floral design with her bedspread and matching curtains. Sounds very 70's to me. BOL
Brenda has always liked yellow and orange, so that was the idea behind her creation of Sunshine Saturday. Of special note, every 2nd Saturday of each month, has been designated for that special day. It's a day to concentrate on only positive events. You would be amazed what can happen, when you choose to change your mindset for a day.
Got a little off track here. Back to our concept of turning our lemons into opportunities.
As you know if you read this blog, Brenda has lived with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for almost 27 years and on September 8th of this year, will become a 10 year brain tumor survivor. That is huge, folks!
Brenda celebrates everything. I kid her about this, all of the time. BOL.
This past December 21st. she administered her #1,000 injection of her biologic. It will also be 17 years on April 20th, that she had her first injection. At that time, it could only be given every 72 to 96 hours, so she had to keep some kind of record. She decided to keep track and when she got close to #1,000 she realized that a celebration was in order. She got herself a beautiful pendant, with the words inscribed on a bar; "Encourage your hopes, not your fears." Perfect, don't you think?
Brenda described why this was so meaningful. "In the beginning I was a bit fearful of giving myself injections, but I managed to conquer that fear, quite quickly. By injection #4, I was already giving them myself. I had great hope, as 10 years was a long time to find the right kind of medication for me. I never gave up!"
Brenda had just sliced open her lemon. See where I am going with this?
Brenda has faced many challenges in her life, as I am sure many of our readers have as well. We hope this post spurs you on, to conquer your lemons and slice them open. I will be sharing later, what you can find inside of one. I'm getting excited sharing this with you. BOL
2008 was a difficult year for Brenda. She was experiencing tremendous head pain. Not a headache! She had experienced a head injury a few years before. We are not going to go into that, as many of you know the story.
Anyway, you know when something is wrong with your body. She never gave up. She asked for her head CT in the first place. Working in the medical field, does have its advantages.
She was diagnosed with a nonmalignant right frontal lobe meningioma on August 26th, confirmed with an MRI. They wouldn't know anything for sure, until a craniotomy was performed and be able to look under a microscope.
On September 8, 2008, Brenda's life was forever changed. She was dealing with yet another lemon in her life. They were able to get the whole tumor out and even the tail, which is a striking characteristic of a meningioma. It was indeed nonmalignant. Brenda does not appreciate that word benign, as its connotation is sometimes confused, with it not being serious. It was something that shouldn't have been there. I've had the chance of hearing Brenda talk about this, with Rick Franzo over the airwaves on Brain Tumor Talk: Worldwide Radio Show. He even talked about good old Trevor here, so he is golden in my book. BOL
About a year after her craniotomy and living the life of a brain tumor survivor, Brenda sliced open her lemon and started writing. She found an opportunity and went for it. She had never really done any kind of writing before. The idea of doing a blog was foreign, but she was willing to test the waters and see how it went. It was pretty amazing! It was so well received and she knew that she had to keep digging into that lemon and get all the juice out that she could. You realize that what I am sharing is metaphorical, but so paramount in facing those obstacles in our lives.
We share this with you, in the hopes that if you encounter a lemon along your path, that you will be brave enough to slice it open and let those juices become opportunities, that you couldn't even begin to imagine were possible.
Before I close this tale, Brenda wanted me to share this illustration with you. It speaks for itself.
~Trevor~
Brenda is passionate about sharing her story. She has a knack for being creative in doing so. As you can see from our title, we are going to explore lemons.
First off, yellow is Brenda's favorite color. Her bedroom while she still living at home yet, was painted with Lemon Whip walls. She had a yellow floral design with her bedspread and matching curtains. Sounds very 70's to me. BOL
Brenda has always liked yellow and orange, so that was the idea behind her creation of Sunshine Saturday. Of special note, every 2nd Saturday of each month, has been designated for that special day. It's a day to concentrate on only positive events. You would be amazed what can happen, when you choose to change your mindset for a day.
Got a little off track here. Back to our concept of turning our lemons into opportunities.
As you know if you read this blog, Brenda has lived with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for almost 27 years and on September 8th of this year, will become a 10 year brain tumor survivor. That is huge, folks!
Brenda celebrates everything. I kid her about this, all of the time. BOL.
This past December 21st. she administered her #1,000 injection of her biologic. It will also be 17 years on April 20th, that she had her first injection. At that time, it could only be given every 72 to 96 hours, so she had to keep some kind of record. She decided to keep track and when she got close to #1,000 she realized that a celebration was in order. She got herself a beautiful pendant, with the words inscribed on a bar; "Encourage your hopes, not your fears." Perfect, don't you think?
Brenda described why this was so meaningful. "In the beginning I was a bit fearful of giving myself injections, but I managed to conquer that fear, quite quickly. By injection #4, I was already giving them myself. I had great hope, as 10 years was a long time to find the right kind of medication for me. I never gave up!"
Brenda had just sliced open her lemon. See where I am going with this?
Brenda has faced many challenges in her life, as I am sure many of our readers have as well. We hope this post spurs you on, to conquer your lemons and slice them open. I will be sharing later, what you can find inside of one. I'm getting excited sharing this with you. BOL
2008 was a difficult year for Brenda. She was experiencing tremendous head pain. Not a headache! She had experienced a head injury a few years before. We are not going to go into that, as many of you know the story.
Anyway, you know when something is wrong with your body. She never gave up. She asked for her head CT in the first place. Working in the medical field, does have its advantages.
She was diagnosed with a nonmalignant right frontal lobe meningioma on August 26th, confirmed with an MRI. They wouldn't know anything for sure, until a craniotomy was performed and be able to look under a microscope.
On September 8, 2008, Brenda's life was forever changed. She was dealing with yet another lemon in her life. They were able to get the whole tumor out and even the tail, which is a striking characteristic of a meningioma. It was indeed nonmalignant. Brenda does not appreciate that word benign, as its connotation is sometimes confused, with it not being serious. It was something that shouldn't have been there. I've had the chance of hearing Brenda talk about this, with Rick Franzo over the airwaves on Brain Tumor Talk: Worldwide Radio Show. He even talked about good old Trevor here, so he is golden in my book. BOL
About a year after her craniotomy and living the life of a brain tumor survivor, Brenda sliced open her lemon and started writing. She found an opportunity and went for it. She had never really done any kind of writing before. The idea of doing a blog was foreign, but she was willing to test the waters and see how it went. It was pretty amazing! It was so well received and she knew that she had to keep digging into that lemon and get all the juice out that she could. You realize that what I am sharing is metaphorical, but so paramount in facing those obstacles in our lives.
We share this with you, in the hopes that if you encounter a lemon along your path, that you will be brave enough to slice it open and let those juices become opportunities, that you couldn't even begin to imagine were possible.
Before I close this tale, Brenda wanted me to share this illustration with you. It speaks for itself.
~Trevor~
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