Hallmark doesn’t make a card for this.
Last October I showed you Rachael’s Beads of Courage. This is what her necklace looked like back then. She had already been through an awful lot.
Here we have IV’s, an ambulance ride and overnight hospital stays, A.K.A. Staphylococcus Sucks. Royally, I might add.
It culminated in this one very special bead that represents, in all its artistic beauty, the most painful procedure Rachael has had to date…. getting an ultrasound at the site of her staph infection. I had to emotionally check-out that day.
Each time she has to get an echo-cardiogram (three times so far), she double-checks that it’s the ultrasound that won’t hurt, right? That memory can still make both our hearts race. This bead is beautiful and bitter to me. I think she just finds it pretty.
Speaking of echo-cardiograms… there’s a bead for that. It’s also the bead for EKG’s. She does both of those on the same day.
She has other special beads too. Like this one that celebrated her last high-dose interferon infusion, and Christmas, which was only two weeks away. This bead meant “we get to go home!”
And this one…. which represents surgery. She has three stars.
Silver beads are for dressing changes and they were dreaded, painful experiences. This was a bad week.
This represents three weeks of Rachael’s current treatment. Black beads are for “pokes” – blood draws, IV’s, or home injections. White beads are for interferon. When she is done, she will have 65 white beads. She would have had 68 but we had to stop her infusions the last week of “high-dose” due to her blood counts getting too low.
She has a lot of black and white beads.
This is what her beads look like now. She’s working on that third necklace.
I wanted to show you a bit of her journey because today is a big day. Today is a day Rachael will remember and celebrate like a birthday, maybe even in a more deeply profound and personal way. This date, September 24th is a precious day for me and a medically important date for her.
Today my beautiful Warrior is one year, No Evidence of Disease!
Rejoicing with you my friend!! Celebrate… Woohooo!! I love the beads and the visual to see all that she has been through and survived! May God continue to be with you all and may Rachael remain NED for the rest of her life!!!
WOW…their are no words to describe your post.. I am speechless…she is so much braver than I..God Bless you Rachel and your beautiful family.
Praise the Lord for victories! God is so good. You and your family have so much to be thankful for this year, indeed! Grace hasn’t gotten her Beads of Courage yet. I hope they start her’s soon before her treatments start. We will continue to keep your family in our prayers.
Donna, she needs to just ask for them and Dr. Hughes nurse will take her to where they are. They never offered them to us, we just saw them and said, “Hey! Where do we get these?” She has already been through a LOT and should be working on that first necklace.
First, HOORAY for No Evidence of Disease! What a wonderful, wonderful miracle (and no small feat in all the work and sacrifice and pain in getting there!!!)…Again, HOORAY!
The beads were beautiful…precious and heartbreaking at the same time. What an amazing testament to her strength and perseverance and determination!
Thank you for your sweet comment on my blog! I love the Shower of Blessings idea and so does my good friend who is planning it all, so thank you, thank you! Exactly what we want–a celebration–life doesn’t always give us enough opportunities to do so, and I’m grateful for them all!!
xoxo
Thank you for sharing more about her necklace and the procedures she has gone through. I was showing Noah and explaining that these necklaces where like his beltloops on his belt.
Praise God for her first year with 110 more to come
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