Showing posts with label chemo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chemo. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Family illness

Three of my four grandparents died from cancer, (the fourth from diabetes) My Dad died of cancer in 1991 and Mom is having her second round of it now. She is such an amazing person. She had breast cancer in 2004, 6 months after a clean mammogram she found a lump.Let this be a lesson to the doctors who say no self-exam necessary! She had some radiation and a lumpectomy and did wonderfully. When she was diagnosed she told me "don't worry about me, I talked to God and he said I'll be fine". And she was.

Two years ago she was diagnosed with cirrhosis, (never drank a drop, caused by diabetic fatty liver)and liver cancer. Up to a point she responded to treatment very well, the liver tumors disappeared, now she has problems with lymph nodes that they are trying to decided how to treat. She refuses IV chemo, she's seen too many people go through it and not improve. As a matter of fact when she saw the quality of life my Dad had for the last two years of his life she told us then, no chemo for her. 

Her take on all this? "God knows what He's doing, I'm 72 years old and have lived a good life, He'll tell me what he wants" She feels great, is still volunteering at a local soup kitchen almost daily.
And she has been calm, cool, and collected through all this. How can I be anything else?  If I think about it it tears me up, but I will try my best to respect her by following her lead.