Cindy:
January 20th, 2014
10am
When mom was diagnosed last December we were told chemo for her would be indefinitely every 2 weeks, until it stopped working, or she decided she no longer wanted it.
She hasn't really had any side effects aside from the fatigue and loss of appetite from the 4th-7th day.
And although she has some bad days, when she has good days they're great.
Well today will be Chemo #22 for mom, and as crazy & selfish as it may sound in the moment, I'm hoping for at least a hundred more....
1:00pm
Waiting with mom for chemo and she's feeling good, so good that's she's had 2 cups of coffee and eaten almost a whole bowl of laffy taffy's while we've been waiting.
One of things I've noticed since mom was told she has cancer is that she no longer has the filter most of us live our lives by.
She's always pretty honest whether you like it or not, yet somehow still seems to let everything roll right off her back, no longer taking life so seriously. Well that was the exact case tonight...
So mom was getting chemo while eating dinner at the same time, the young nurse who was orientating decided to sit down and chat with her.
Mind you I'm not really paying to much attention at this point because during chemo mom usually sleeps and I try to distract myself by reading.
When I hear the nurse say "God does everything for a reason and miracles do happen." Intrigued by what's to come next, I put down my book to listen.
She begins to tell mom about a patient she had who had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and chosen to seek out a second opinion.
Now with " miracles happen" being the opening line, what I assumed she was going to say next was that during that second opinion he had found out he had been misdiagnosed or that he had some radical treatment that had cured him.
You'd think right? Wrong!
Instead she asked us If we had heard around thanksgiving time of a blind woman and her husband dying in a fire.
It turned out that the husband was her patient with the brain tumor.
I said "I don't get it".
She said, " All this time time he thought what was going to kill him was the brain tumor, but what actually took his life was the house fire..
I looked at mom who looked utterly confused and I cringed and waited.....
Mom turns to her and saids "So is what your saying, not to worry to much about dying from stomach cancer because a miracle may occur where I die in a freak accident before then?
The nurse realized her story may not have come across exactly the way she intended it too and looked kind of embarassed.
Mom tried to put the nurse at ease and just smiled telling her not to worry too much about it because she was ready and when it's her time it's her time. While jokingly encouraging her not to become a motivational speaker anytime soon.
When as we're leaving mom smiles and saids " I'll see you in two weeks, that is if I don't get killed in some random accident before then.
Me, I said absolutely nothing and just thought to myself maybe from now on chemo time should be quiet time, and I should just stick to reading my book....
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