Early tomorrow morning I am flying out Seattle to see my Mom. About 6 days ago she called to deliver some bad news – the cancer was back.
Over the past 3 years my Mom has battled a couple of different forms of cancer. First there was the Breast Cancer. Fortunately the doctors caught it early. They operated quickly, performing a lumpectomy and lymph node removal at the same time. Following radiation treatment everything seemed to be good. No further cancer was found in the lymph nodes and my mom seemed to have recovered fairly quickly.
6 months later I received a phone call saying that my mom had Kidney Cancer. During routine screening following the radiation treatment, the doctor decided to order a full body scan. Further testing indicated that one of my mom’s kidneys was going to need to be removed. All of my brothers and sisters and I (there are 7 of us in total) flew out to spend time with her while she was in the hospital. That marked the first time I had seen some of my family in many years.
After the surgery, Mom seemed to recover pretty quickly, amazing her doctors. She even was able to come out to Ohio to spend some time with my wife and I. Over the last 2 years since her kidney removal, I have made several trips out to Seattle. Fortunately, my companies main office is in Seattle so I am able to extend my business trips by a couple of days so I can head over to Port Orchard, on the Olympic Peninsula, to see my Mom and the few brothers and sisters who live close by.
Everything was going well. Mom has been doing a lot of traveling and seemed to be in pretty good health. I have been able to see her about 2 to 3 times a year and we were even planning on spending some time together in Las Vegas after the DotNetNuke OpenForce '08 conference in November. Las Vegas seems to be a second home for my Mom. I think AARP must include some drug in their newsletters that causes some unnatural attraction to Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
Last Wednesday night, Mom called to say she has been diagnosed with Lung Cancer and that she is going in for surgery on July 25th (this Friday) to have part of her lung removed. Needless to say, this was a complete shock. Like everyone who deals with severe illness in close family members, you struggle to deal with your emotions. Prior to my fathers death 11 years ago, I had not been out to see Mom or Dad in a long time. Fortunately I was able to see my Mom more often these past couple of years. Still, waiting around is the hardest part for me. My Mom is rarely forthcoming with information so it is hard to gauge how far the cancer has progressed. We should find out a little more once I have a chance to talk to my brothers and sisters tomorrow.
To help deal with all the waiting and the emotional roller coaster of the past week, I buried myself in a project down in my wood shop. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I love wood-working in general and wood turning specifically. I decided this would be a good time to break out one of my prized pieces of walnut and create a gift for my Mom to help cheer her up while she is in the hospital and to remind her how much all of her kids love her. The highlight of the piece is an Oak insert with a wood inlay depicting a ribbon commonly worn by cancer survivors. Once I get out to Seattle all of my brothers and sisters can sign the bowl around the rim and we can give it to her at the hospital.
During this whole process, my Mom has been very positive and upbeat. I do not know where she finds the strength. Hopefully, like the last two surgeries, everything will go well and she will back on her feet in no time. At this point I can only pray and ask others to pray for her as well.
While I know that we will all will lose our parents at some point, it is just very difficult to deal with when the realities of life intrudes on your own personal plans.