They Are Better Off Now

I was reading another really good blog by "Sick Girl Speaks" (http://sickgirlspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/05/battle-metaphor-repost-with-new-ending.html) where she discussed the "Battle Metaphor". I had never really thought about it all that much. My mom got me a necklace that says "Survivor" and has a heart with wings, but usually I don't feel like I have really survived anything. But it made me think, one day I will lose the battle and I will not longer be considered a survivor, so does that make me less of a person, or not as great of a person?
You know after someone passed to young, from an awful illness, like cancer, someone will say: "They are in a better place now," which is true, heaven is a much better place. But, they might also say:"they are better off now". I do not believe this at all. Through all the pain I have had, 7 years of nausea, migraines, life changes, etc. everything has been worth those life experiences I have had in those 7 years. Helping people, making people happy, enjoying life with others, it is worth all the pain. Through this road trip I have been in about a level 8 pain, I feel like I am about to cry, and the Oxy doesn't work. But it has all been worth it, I am not only seeing America, I am making memories with my sisters and we are learning new things, and becoming adults together. Alicia Parlette summed it up best when she told her brother: 'I'd rather choose life with this pain than death without it. Choose life, Matthew. Always choose life.' After she told her brother her pain was 100 on a scale of 1-10.

Here is her blog-and where you can buy her amazing book. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/special/pages/2005/alicia/partone.DTL

I just started the book:"Critical Care" by Theresa Brown, it is so good. I wish there was more nurses like her, or how she describes her self to be.