Hey Everybody!
Gosh I feel like I have learned so much about cancer in the last few weeks and then still there is so much that I don't understand. I am just baffled by how complex cancer is and how many different forms there are and then how many different treatments there are. I keep telling people that my family and I are just learning as we go and this is very true.
When we began this journey just over a month ago mom was going to an oncologist in Albuquerque. The treatment process involved four months of chemo, surgery, and then radiation. So every other Friday Mom and Dad would get in the car and drive an almost 3 hour drive so that mom could get chemo. After four hours of mom being hooked up to chemo (or as I affectionately have named it "poison"), mom and dad would spend the night and get up the next morning and mom would get a shot. Then mom and dad would drive the almost 3 hour drive back home and wait and see how mom would respond to treatment.
So that is the plan.....I know the plan......and then comes.........CHANGE (it has been good change though..)
In the middle of all this mom went for her normal wellness checkup in Alamogordo. Her regular doctor asked her why she was driving all the way to Albuquerque for treatment and not having treatment in Alamo. Mom told the doctor that Alamo couldn't get her in until September and she couldn't wait that long. Well the doctor did what all good doctors do, he or she, made a phone call and got mom into the clinic in Alamo! YEAH!!!!!
Huge, huge blessings! Wait, let's count them out:
Blessing 1: Mom getting treatment in the town that is like half the distance
Blessing 2: All the money and wear and tear that is saved from not traveling as far and mom and dad not having to spend the night
Okay, so right there are two huge blessings! There are more to come! Mom and dad went for a meeting with the new doctor. The new doc told mom that she should go ahead and have her surgery instead of waiting. So the last week or so we have just been waiting to hear on when mom will have surgery. (September 21 for those who are wondering)
So mom went this last Thursday for her first treatment with the new doctor. So here are some more blessings:
Blessing 3: Mom doesn't have chemo again until after surgery
Blessing 4: Two of the nurses at the new doc's office are Christians. They made mom feel welcomed and comfortable
Blessing 5: Dad will be giving mom her next day shots from here on out. What is the shot? ummm I don't know, thats why I call it the next day shot, because she has been going the next day after chemo to get it! hahaha
Blessing 6: I get to go home for a week during mom's surgery
Blessing 7: The company that makes mom's anti-nausea drug is going to pay for it completely!
So there we are folks. In a few weeks mom will be having her surgery. She has 4 weeks from her last chemo round to surgery and then she will have 4 weeks of recovery before she starts chemo again. They are going to be changing up her chemo when she starts up again and I am really not sure what that is going to look like yet. I will keep you posted so you can be praying.
The past few weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions. It is a constant choice of trusting the Lord to be more than enough in the midst of the madness. It is trusting Him to walk through every moment of this trial with us. And thus far He has proved Himself to be more than faithful. Not that He had to prove Himself, but He has continued to allow us to see the good in the midst of the pain.
How is mom doing in the midst of all of this? Well hair loss was a big struggle and it continues to be. I can't even imagine how she must feel. I think hair loss would be so scary to me. It has been a mountain before mom, but I have seen mom's faith grow more in the past month than I honestly have my entire life. I see mom's faith becoming something she knows and lives, not just something she talks about. I am so proud of her.
Please continue to pray for our family. Here are some ways you can pray: Mom as she deals with the loss of her hair, cancer in general, and her upcoming surgery also that she will be transparent with Dad and I with how she feels so we can help her, Dad as he walks day by day with mom and is her constant nurse, Me as I battle the difficulty of being far away from my family in the midst of the scary disease.
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