Female, United States
Last seen 2 years ago

C. Jayne Armstrong

http://shoppingkharma.blogspot.com

I am a 38 years old cancer survivor who is very happily married to my very best friend and soul mate where we live in San Jose, CA with our Sheltie "Blue Belle" and our Manx cat Tonto.

Most people would consider me to be a hard headed modern hippie; a very avid supporter of good karma and doing good things for others in life while promoting peace. I live by the Golden Rule "Treat others how you would want to be treated". Life is way too short to be disgruntled or to feel hatred for others; so when you are sitting in traffic and the person in front of you drives too slow or just makes you mad; always remember that person's life is worth waiting for.

I also believe strongly in honesty and I don't believe in taking advantage of others. The only way to judge anyone is by their heart and soul and most of all their personality. For example, someone's wallet or personal possessions will never make them a better person; instead its how they treat themselves and others.

I have Stage IIIc Ovarian Cancer and am fighting it with all my might. I was diagnosed with this dreadful disease on Nov. 15th, 2002. What a nightmare that was to wake up to. I was only going in for a routine surgery to remove a cyst on my right ovary. While I was slowly awaking from that surgery, I kept hearing nurses and doctors saying, "it's Ovarian Cancer stage 3". I kept thinking, "gee, I hope they aren't talking about me." I would go to sleep and wake up, hoping that it was all just a bad dream.

When I finally did wake up, I saw this bright light in my face and then as my eyes focused slowly on my finance; he was standing right over my bed smiling at me gently holding the engagement ring that he had given to me when he had first proposed to me nearly six months before. The ring was placed neatly in the beautiful wooden box that it came in and it was open so that I could see it sparkling in the light. He just told me that he didn't care that I would never bare his children and that he loved me more than anything. It was as if he already knew that he was in for the fight of his life. Just hearing those words made me feel better than ever about the dire situation; it warmed my heart.

Instead of focusing on this horrible, horrible situation; I got to plan my very special wedding. My husband and I had originally planned to get married in April, of 2003, but that soon changed. We were married on December 3rd, 2002 just 2 days before my very 1st chemo treatment of Taxol & Carboplatinum and just 9 days after being released from the hospital. We felt the need to be strong together so that we could beat this terrible disease together, hand in hand. What a roller coaster ride that was and it still kinda is.

We are what soul mates are often consisted of; parallel similarities in how we both grew up and the amount of fun we always seem to have together. We have gone through a lot in those nearly 6 years of marriage. We went through 4 more major surgeries after that one, a few handfuls of near death experiences, many, many trips to the emergency room, and also many trips to Tahoe for some nice deep powder, trips to the beach, concerts, and we even bought a home together.

Despite having had 5 major abdominal surgeries, I still have a good quality of life and I sure love it! I still feel incredibly lucky and am thankful for everyday that I am given. I was incredibly fortunate enough to have had 3 and half years of being cancer free.