You have to take one day at a time. My mother gave me this book “The Precious Present” when I was in high school because I worried about everything. Years later in 1995 when I was diagnosed with PSC (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis), that book really came to light and that’s what I live by now. You live the moment. You don’t look at tomorrow, as what you think about tomorrow may never flourish. I was listed for a liver transplant. I got a chest x-ray before the scheduled surgery and they found metastatic colon cancer in my lungs. I had been eight years free of the cancer. I was taken off the transplant list because of the cancer. So there I was thinking about having the liver transplant and now had to deal with the cancer. That’s why you don’t worry about tomorrow as it may change. You take one day at a time. That’s what gives me strength.

I have also had an ileostomy (an opening in the belly for the poop to come out). It was awful when I first had it. My husbands grandmother had one and it used to just freak me out. I hoped to never have it, though now I do. I’m handling it better than I thought I would. You’re always concerned about it though, that it may leak. I have been in situations where it has leaked. I had to empty it in an airplane seat once. I couldn’t get into the bathroom as it was too small for me to adjust it. There was a young man sitting next to me. My sister explained to him what was going on. I put a blanket over my head and emptied it into the little bag they have in the airplanes that is used to vomit. I’m sure it smelt foul but you do what you got to do. The young man was fine with it. We were just laughing after. Humor is a big thing too and I do have a good amount of that.