How to have a spiritual life when you have leukemia.

I just came up with the perfect distraction to take my mind off leukemia. Although I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else.

Last week I was trying to unhook a utility trailer from my car. As soon as the trailer left the car's hitch it rolled forward and, like the idiot I am, I tried to stop it.

The next thing I knew the tongue of the trailer fell, crushing the little finger of my left hand.

My wife rushed me to the emergency hospital and they sewed me up, but they said I had to see a hand surgeon as soon as possible because it was a crush injury with a severed tendon and broken bone.

Yesterday, the hand surgeon operated on my finger, trying as best he could to reconnect the tendon and repair the bone. He even had to remove some dead skin. Yuck.

Needless to say, it's going to take quite a long time to heal before I can do much with that hand. If you want to get really grossed out you can see photos of my injury on my blog at meandleuk.com.

Tomorrow our band is getting together to practice. So I’m gonna be a one-handed drummer. That’ll be a new thing.

Yeah, so I guess that's one way to take my mind off Leuk, but I hope you come up with a less painful solution!

Throughout this podcast I've tried to encourage people with CLL leukemia that they can have a well-lived life in spite of their disease. Well, now it's time for me to take my own advise as I face a new challenge: bladder cancer.

Like so many things in life, leukemia brings change. When CLL came into my life, I still felt the same physically. But in my head I felt suddenly different. I knew the future was no longer going to go as I'd planned. The question was, and still is, how will I deal with that change? Do I fight it or embrace it? Do I let fear and doubt rule me, or do I push through it -- acknowledge my new life and move forward. Hopefully this podcast will have some answers.

Don't let leukemia stop you from enjoying life. One of the best ways to do that is by setting and accomplishing goals. The aim of this episode to to encourage you to live a full life, no matter how long you have.

Yes, you have leukemia, but if you allow yourself to take your time you can accomplish more than you think. It's okay to take longer to do a project than it did before you had CLL. On today's episode I talk about my adventure tiling our bathroom. It took me three weeks! A job that most would do in a few days. Now, some of that time was spent learning how to do a job I'd never done before. But I also had to work at a slower pace. But I did it. So don't give up on yourself. And don't let Leuk convince you that you can't accomplish things.

CLL leukemia, it ain't fun. Though my leukemia can seem like an invisible disease, sometimes leuk raises his ugly head and I just have to take a day off. That happened a couple days ago. So, of course it was a bit frustrating, but I didn't let it get to me. I didn't let leuk control my thoughts. It's okay to take some time off if you need to. Tomorrow will be better. Don't be hard on yourself if you can't accomplish ever thing you want to in one day. It's okay. You're okay. And, you are not alone. The rest of us deal with it too. I hope this episode will encourage you to keep on being who you are and not let leuk weigh heavy on your mind.

Visit my blog at: meandleuk.com

There are ways to beat the fear and worry of having leukemia. Today we talk about setting short-term and long-term goals and how that can have a positive influence on your life. Don't let Leuk beat you down. Engage in Life again.