Giving thanks for family

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Added: Tue Nov 20th 6:29pm
Posted in: Cancer

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It's hard to think that a year ago my mother was waiting to have her right lung removed. We found out in July of '06 that she had a tumor the size of a small orange growing in her lung. Mark and I had been to a Red Sox/D-Rays game the night before and woke up in St. Petersburg to a frantic phone call from my sister early Tuesday morning letting us know that my mother had been admitted to the hospital after coughing up blood.

Our plans for the 4th of July week changed a bit. We had reservations to spend a few nights at Disney with Mark's sister, her husband and their three kids. We were able to visit with them between hospital visits. It was a bittersweet week because I love Mark's family so much and I was happy to see them and spend time with them but at the same time I felt like I was losing my mind at having to cope with the uncertainty of my mother's future.

It took weeks before she was staged and before she started her treatments of chemo and radiation. She lost her hair. She couldn't eat and lost weight. She slept alot. She became weak. Then she found a beautiful wig and it brought her smile back and she found a reason to be happy that her hair had fallen out. Eventually after weeks and weeks of treatments she was feeling better and could hold some food down.

Surgery was scheduled for December 28, 2007. Most of the time between her diagnosis and her surgery is a blur. I remember being worried alot and crying alot and researching alternative therapies and nutritional therapy.

Her surgery was a success. The chemo and radiation helped to shrink her tumor down to a size that allowed her to be considered a candidate for surgery. Her left-lung passed the breathing tests and would be able to cope with the burden of processing all that extra blood. The margins were clear and the surgeon was confident that all the cancer was removed from her body.

Recovery was slow. She slept alot again for about 2 months and had little to no energy. She could breathe on her own so we were happy and proud that she didn't need an oxygen tank, but I was wondering if she'd ever be able to shuffle more than a few steps at a time without gasping for breath.

Thankfully she has made a brilliant recovery! Her hair has grown back and looks wonderful. She didn't put any weight back on and she now fits in to my clothes better than I do! My father, my sister, my mother and I walked to the first annual Lake Mary Farmer's Market the other weekend and my mother kept a normal pace and did not get winded. She spent about 45 minutes on her feet admiring all the goods at the various vendor stations and she walked back home and made some lunch for my father!

It is going to be a great Thanksgiving!!!! I'm thankful for my family's health, for my wonderful and adoring husband, for my health and well-being and for having another year to celebrate with the people I love.