Originally Posted by spareparts
my mother is 78 and has been going thru treatment since the spring of 09. She went thru a hysterectomy, radiation, chemo and was given a similar prognosis. She was initially deeply depressed, she still is a bit at times, but shes come to adjust to it and accept it as part of her life. She used my daughter as inspiration to get thru the tough times of chemo. My daughter told her is she could handle it, then grandma could. My mother has surpassed the expectations of the doctors.
It's a tough situation, it seems my family has been in it in one way or another for the past 10 years. We looked at it initially as why have we been singled out, it didn't take us long to figure out we're not singled out, cancer is all around us every where, people are living and fighting it every day, everywhere you go. We are now involved with three different organizations that deal with cancer in children. We've meet and lost some good friends, its when we are surrounded with others that we realize that we haven't been singled out. My family has been strengthened by the people we've met thru it all. My mother now looks forward to the time at chemo so she can talk to the other patients there, shes met a lot of new friends, young and old, its a common bond thru them all. Her water aerobics class(part of her rehabilitation process) is the highlight of her week. I'm not going to patronize anyone by saying "its going to get better" and all the other cliche's that we hear. And as hard as it sounds, it is part of life, just one more challenge that we have to endure. When my wife went thru treatment and operations, she told me she was looking at it (much to my dismay) as the boob reduction she always wanted. One day when she was pumping gas, a women(complete stranger) noticed my wife( no hair from chemo) and walked up to her, she told my wife it was ok, this women was also survivor. My wife had been in the dumps that day, but those words from a complete stranger lifted her spirits. Our friend erik went thru gamma knife treatment yesterday, he's taking today off, but he's going back to school tomorrow. He's had the maximum amount of radiation allowed for his life, he's still taking chemo each day and will for a while. He's determined to graduate high school and get accepted to college, at 17 years old he's been given a 30% chance of making it to his next birthday, this will be his forth time fighting cancer at his young age. He accepts it as another challenge of his life, he's determined to live and not let it run his life.
Best wishes to you and your mother, our family will keep you both in our prayers. Tell your mother to keep her head up, its just another day and another challenge of life, we all go thru it each and everyday.
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