cancer stuff

I haven’t written about what’s been going on with my mom for a while. She had a double mastectomy back in December, and has recovered pretty well from that. The next step was to run all kinds of tests on the cancer cells that were removed, to figure out what her next course of treatment should be.

In early January, she met with the oncologist who told her that if she decided to not have chemotherapy, there would be a 40% chance of cancer recurrence. And since she doesn’t have breasts anymore, that means the cancer would be somewhere else – brain, bones, liver, lungs, etc. Not a pretty picture. With chemo, however, the odds of recurrence are reduced to about 10%. Kind of a no-brainer, so that’s what she opted to do.

Last weekend, she went to New York City to hang out with my sister and do a little wig-shopping. Did you know that there are no wig stores in Jackson? I don’t know why that surprised me, but it did. Anyway, they found her a really cute wig that looks a little like Megan Mullaly (Karen on “Will & Grace”). Hopefully having a cute ‘do will make it easier when she feels like crap and her real hair starts falling out.

Chemotherapy starts today. I’m obviously a little worried for her, just because this is something that seems so big and scary. And I know that chemo makes you feel horrible, and I hate that she’s going to have to go through that. But you know, this is only for four months, and then it’s all over. And hopefully we will never have to revisit the subject of cancer ever again.

This morning I took some pictures of Cate while she was in a good mood and uploaded them, so my mom will have some online grandbaby love when she gets home.

pretty girl

That’s gotta help, right?

2 thoughts on “cancer stuff

  1. Your mom is going to be so healthy when this is over, but I don’t envy the 4 months of getting there. It’s a blessing that she’s got the chemo option to all but eliminate the cancer– not everyone is so lucky to find the cancer early enough for that to work.

    I told your mom that I don’t know how she resisted going platinum blonde– it’s still not too late to get a 2nd wig for special occasions! Although if I could pick any hair in the world, I’d go glamour-red like Cici’s hair.

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