Crystal Kicks Cancer: Ring The Bell, It Is Finished

Today was a huge day for my wife and our family.

After 209 days...

25 radiation treatments,

Dozens of doctor and other related appointments,

6 rounds of chemotherapy,

3 days in the hospital,

6 hours of surgery,

Crystal is done with treatment for breast cancer. It was time to ring the bell!

It's been a long road for me to watch her go through it. I know it was much longer for her. She honestly made it look easy. After the initial shock of diagnosis, she was never down about it. Each step, each day was another closer to the end.

Now life can really start to get back to normal. Crystal still has a few appointments that she will have to go to. And then of course there is one more surgery, the exchange of her tissue expanders for permanent implants. That will likely happen in August, close to her birthday.

So she will be able to say she got new boobs for her birthday!

There are so many to thank. Our families for sure, but especially our parents. After Tom and Linda had our kids for two weeks last summer they went up to Jim and Sue's in Minnesota for another two weeks. Getting Esia to come back to the city was not easy after that much time on the farm, much of it on Aunt Mary's Gator.

Thank you to our bosses for understanding that taking care of Crystal came first and work could always be dealt with later.

Thank you to our church family and many friends for the pounds and pounds of food, freezer meals and gift cards to get take out instead of cooking.

Thank you to the doctors and nurses for the expert care. She felt lucky to be living in Sioux Falls, so close to all of you.

And thank you to anyone who heard me talk about Crystal on the air or read it in a blog and said a little prayer for her. We felt the love and support throughout the last seven months.

It is finished.