Celebrating 4 Years Cancer-Free

Carla Deschamps is now a survivor of colon cancer after receiving her diagnosis in February 2020. Read her blogs here!

Celebrations can be praised in many different ways. On Feb. 24, 2024, I was able to celebrate four years of being a cancer survivor. After my diagnosis with colon cancer in February 2020, I began to see life from a different perspective. Throughout my journey, I came to the realization that spending quality time with friends and family was extremely significant to me. 

I desire to take a moment and share with you how on this day, I was fortunate to commemorate being cancer-free. To start, I had invited my closest family members to come over to my brother's house, who was gracious enough to host my party. On that day, my parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins gathered together to celebrate four years of being a warrior, fighter and conqueror. They admired my way of living as well as how I carried myself throughout this passage after my diagnosis of colon cancer. 

Furthermore, I have always been known as the girl who has birthday theme parties. I enjoy planning events and making it fun for everyone. From my perspective, themes represent unity and authenticity. For this reason, on that day, I asked my family to wear dark blue jeans with a white shirt while I wore a dark blue shirt with black pants. The reason why I chose dark blue was because it is the color of colon cancer, which signified awareness. It gave all of us an opportunity to be mindful as colon cancer awareness month was approaching.

Additionally, I had given my family dark blue ribbon pins as a way to say thank you for all their continued support. My family was very thankful because they were unaware that I was going to give them the ribbon pins as souvenirs. It meant the world to me that each and every one of them was there to celebrate my triumph against cancer. 

As the day went by, my family and I did a lot of fun activities together such as playing board games. My favorite one is and will always be Parchessi. I have been playing that game ever since I can remember. I must have been about 6 years old when I played it for the very first time. We also made dinner together and made it into a Mexican feast. My sister had made her famous guacamole with chips, which everyone loved. My sister-in-law, with the help of my mother and older sister, made chicken and steak tacos. My cousin had made her delicious nachos while I made chicken quesadillas. I must say, dinner was definitely tasty and flavorsome. Everyone enjoyed eating together as a family.

My favorite moments that day consisted of taking family pictures, especially making silly, funny faces, along with my 1-year-old nephew throwing some of my cake on the floor. It was a memorable moment because it happened quickly and unexpectedly. I was dying of laughter to the point that my eyes were watery. After all, laughter is the best remedy!! I recalled thinking about how strong my nephew was even though he was a 1-year-old. I was actually looking forward to eating my cake, which I ended up eating, by the way. I am a strong believer of the five-second rule. Indeed, spending time with my family and celebrating four years of being cancer-free without a doubt is worth smiling about. I am Forever Blessed!!

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