Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Who Would Have Guessed

It has been a long time since my last post. I've been busy, just not with the art kind of life I enjoy so much. We have been on a couple of trips, totaling about 7,000 miles in driving miles. In the middle of all of it I was diagnosed with cancer - follicular lymphoma to be specific. I had a pretty intensive surgery to retrieve one of the tumors and ended up with a seven inch incision on my abdomen. It didn't heal well, so we packed it with sterile gauze for two months. The first part of July saw me again in the hospital to have a Port line placed in preparation for chemotherapy. I have had three sessions of Chemo now.

Nothing that I know in this world could prepare me for what chemotherapy is like. Most of all it is extremely tiring. Of course, that was one of the early symptoms for me - profound fatigue. The vomiting thing is pretty well controlled with drugs, and then more drugs to keep my white count up, and more drugs to stop the constant intestinal irritation.

When I began this journey I woke up one morning wondering, "What is the job description for fighting cancer?" Text will follow on further installations.

The important thing to me in this passage, if that is what it might be called, is that I intend to arrive on the other side of it a better person, more alive than I have ever been in my life and completely cured. I will not be beat!

1 comment:

Aimee B. said...

Awesome post, Mom! You certainly have been "an alive" person all your life, and I look forward to seeing you even more alive!

From the movie IQ - when's the last time you went "woo-hoo"?

Love you!