Life changes quickly

Next week marks a year since I went overseas with my Mum. We went to South Africa and France on a research/influencer holiday. 

It was life changing and I am currently focusing on writing up what I learnt in South Africa, and picking up work with the brand where I left off. 

The anniversary of the trip holds many emotions – brilliant memories of meeting my family and learning what my Mum’s life was like in Apartheid South Africa; doing touristy things like safaris; talking with artists; and reflecting on how Mum’s (and Dad’s) life has changed in the 44 years since they came to Australia. We also had a glamorous time in France, at a thermal springs hydrotherapy centre. 

But I had cancer symptoms every day – and I didn’t know it. I just got on with it. I think about the food I left on my plate as I got full too quickly, and the constant running to the toilet several times a day, and when I spoke to a doctor who suggested I had dysentery. I think about the time I tried on a dress in Johannesburg and noticed how small my boobs had become. And then the flight home – when my stomach was so swollen and pained. 

When I touched down in Melbourne after seven and a half weeks, I planned to log onto work from home. Instead, I went straight to bed and saw a doctor later that day – who sent me to the hospital. 

From the day I got home, the rest of my year became about cancer. Maybe cancer 24 hours after arriving back in Melbourne, and confirmed cancer a month later.  It all happened so quickly. 

It’s only now that I’m cancer free, and processing all that happened last year. When I was going through it, it was just one foot in front of the other, one thing at a time.

I am feeling stronger thanks to a great diet, regular exercise and no more treatment.  I had to weigh myself a lot last year – twice a week sometimes. I hadn’t weighed myself in years prior. I weighed myself the other day, and I’m the heaviest I’ve been in almost a year. A dress got stuck over my boobs when I tried it on last week! These little things are progress – I’m feeling more like myself every day. 

I’ll go gently next week, and in the coming months. 

How quick life can change. 

Image: Carly, a woman with red skin and short dark curly hair, wearing a yellow dress with sunflowers – some are tied in bunches with pink ribbon. A pink bow belt is tied around her waist. Shes got hot pink boots on. She’s standing in front of a dark green wall, smiling.