Updates

December 17, 2002

It was just about 21 days ago that my mother opened up a slip of paper at the doctor's office to find out that the strange bump on her hip was cancer, and it was spreading quickly.

I wrote about the fact that the physician she had been referred to was the partner of one of my client's children, and instead of this being the first time they could get her into the office, today was the last in a series of pokes and prods that leads to her treatment starting tomorrow.

The monday after Thanksgiving she saw him for the first time, and that same day her CAT scan was completed. Since that time she has had a bone marrow test, a PET Scan, mammogram, another biopsy of a second site, some special test to see if her heart could take the chemo, and as of tomorrow, they start their treatments.

If there is any good news, it's that chemo sometimes works best on what is known as rapidly dividing cells, cancerous or otherwise.

Daughter and fiance fly in tomorrow night for a quick 3 day visit and a bridal shower before heading back to Arizona on Sunday. Its unknown whether or not her grandmother will attempt the trip for the wedding on the 5th of January, but the Doctor says that he thinks she will be good to go.

Then round two of treatments starts on the 8th of January and I don't know just how many happen after that.

The reality of chemo is that it's a scatter shot that gets some of the good with the bad.

At this point all we can do is wait, and pray.