Two Years Ago Today (September 10, 2010)

It's a chemo day (Round 35 is on deck later this afternoon), but today and over the next week and a half, I'm going to do things a little differently here at the WunderGlo blog. I'm going to post daily with a little feature called "Two Years Ago Today." 

You see, my two year cancer anniversary is right around the corner, and I'd like to commemorate it in a special way on this blog.

September 19th, 2010, was the day I was diagnosed and the day that changed my life forever. September 19th, 2010 could have easily been the worst day of my life, or it could have been the day I was reborn. Reborn into the world of healthy eating and healthy lifestyle choices in general. Reborn into the world of cancer where so many suffer but a world in which I vowed that I would do much more celebrating than suffering. Reborn in attitude, focus, and determination. Reborn and ultimately transformed from Gloria Borges, a great girl in her own right, into WunderGlo, the woman you know so well from the hundreds of entries in this blog. 

September 19, 2010, was not the worst day of my life. It was, in fact, one of the best. It was the day I embraced the biggest challenge of my life, knowing full well that I would triumph in this battle against cancer no matter what the odds or what it was I needed to endure. It was the day I saw my life and my purpose on this earth clearer than ever before. It was the day I became a leader in the fight against cancer -- not only the cancer in my body, but the cancer that harms and demoralizes and devastates so many wonderful people. It was the day that defined the legacy I'd leave on this earth. 

But September 10th, 2010? Not so much. So what was I doing two years ago today?

Two years ago today, I emailed my colleagues at O'Melveny to tell them that I was too sick to work on a brief we'd all been plugging away on, an email that I hated writing. Two years ago today, I was severely bloated, unable to eat food without vomiting it up hours later, and dealing with writhing, acidy pain in my groaning belly. I was in the fetal position on my bed in my loft in Downtown L.A. and watching Expedition Great White on the National Geographic Channel, trying to gain strength and resolve from those beautiful sharks on TV. Two years ago today, I was eating a "Big Stick" popsicle and trying to finish the whole thing despite my lack of appetite and anticipation of an unpleasant bathroom experience to follow.

It was two years ago today that I knew that something was very wrong with me. I had seen a couple of doctors at this point, and both of them suggested I take probiotics to ease my symptoms and get back on the path to wellness. Both of them had severely underestimated what was going on inside of my body. 

Two years ago today, I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what. I thought that maybe I'd gotten food poisoning from the suspect Chinese food I'd ordered takeout from, but knew that that couldn't actually explain the symptoms that had been bothering me for months. Two years ago today, I foolishly thought that I could ride out my symptoms, barrel through this rough patch, and go on with my life without much regard for the body that was, in fact, struggling to survive. 

Two years ago today, I had no idea about cancer or surgery or chemo or Dr. Lenz or WunderGlo. 

Crazy. 

Tune in tomorrow for more. I'll be writing "Two Years Ago Today" from now until my cancer anniversary, a day that I was not expected to live to see, September 19th, 2012.