My mother

I haven't written about my mother's illness in a while, so I thought I'd post an update on her.

You'll remember not long ago, she was diagnosed with a rare and deadly form of cancer, primary peritoneal carcinoma. Her doctors were preparing us for the worst, asking us to make end-of-life decisions, and she also received last rites (Annointing of the Sick, for those Catholics here) from a hospital priest. We were preparing for her end.

It's been just over two months since we were told she was dying, though it feels like much longer. She's been in a long-term care hospital in Cambridge since then, receiving large doses of chemotherapy on an almost weekly basis. The doctors finally discovered that the origin of her carcinoma was ovarian cancer, which allowed them to begin chemo treatment.

In these two+ months, she has gone from a stage 4 cancer to stage 1 or 2. She's lost 25 pounds and counting, because she's still unable to eat, and is being fed solely through IV. She's still vomiting on an almost hourly basis, and feels miserable. But she's improving.

She walks every day, and her color has improved. That grayish yellow sunken look has left her face, and although she's very weak, she looks better. I can tell she's feeling better, because she's bitching at the nurses. LOL Her hair has begun to fall out now, and she's talking about what kind of wig to get.

They think she might be well enough to come home soon. It won't be the same for her, of course. She'll need continuous IV feeding at home, and my father is learning how to do that. She won't be able to have the staples of her diet...tea and toast...because she can't keep anything down.

So that's where we are now. She's alive. She's looking better. She wants to go home. We know that she's on borrowed time, as the cancer will come back, but at least she has a while.

And a while will do.