This is not a normal cancer story. It has some sad parts. It has some moments of joy in random and odd places. It has terror. It has an abundance of anger, ego and self-determination. I suppose I could name all the adjectives, and they’d fit somewhere that year.
I spent a lot of 2019 with my heart in the wrong place. Not metaphorically, but physically. My tumours created their own black hole, and it was moving my organs across my chest. I lived most of the year with my lung either partially or fully crushed. I was a list of medical problems too long to fix.
If we were to meet in January of 2019, and not again until January 2020, you wouldn’t know I had survived eight different death sentences. In fact, you might think I took the year off or had just returned from an extended vacation.
But I went to hell. It was a trip—not sure I’d call it a vacation. Which begs the question: How did I not only cheat death, but come out of cancer healthier than I went in?
Honestly, it’s not all that complicated. Anytime someone asks me what saved my life, I answer truthfully.
Pudding.
To read Gina’s 2 exclusive interviews with CENTRED Magazine click here.