Mom's Health

Kel asked for an update on my mom's health - something I really need to do, now that we've been there and seen her. (And a Big Thanks to all who helped get us there, again!)

The news is both good and bad.

Good, in that the latest scans revealed the cancer hasn't spread - but is still there. It seems to be semi-under control right now, but at the expense of her quality of life.

Which is the bad news. When we arrived, her hands had been burnt from the inside out by chemical treatments and the iodine to which she has such a reaction, but which is essential for the scans she underwent. They were completely swollen up and so painful that she couldn't touch anything. Her nails were coming off - and still are. Weeks later the swelling has gone down and she can touch stuff again.

But her body is full of sores. Her legs and arms are spotted with them, her torso is painful, she can't really be touched that much. She's lost all her hair and is almost constantly weak. Showering used to be a pleasure - it's now a pain. She's lost most of her sense of taste, so things she used to enjoy eating now taste like nothing.

She's brave. She doesn't say much about her health or her pain. She sticks plasters over the falling-off nails and goes bowling. She finds ways to lift pots and pans and move chairs without gritting her teeth openly.

She's on a 6-week chemo break at the moment, but she's thinking through quality vs quantity of life - perhaps giving up treatment to enjoy what time she can, instead of extending her life at the cost of enjoying it. It's a very, very tough decision to make. Her doctor has assured her he has many chemical combinations up his sleeve that may work better than what they've just tried. But I'm not sure she wants to go through that.

We don't know what the future holds. We don't know if she'll see the spring garden I planted or continue to see it for years to come. We have no answers. We're glad we could spend time with her now, while things were still reasonably OK. My son and I want to get back to live at least nearer her instead of on the other side of the planet - and not being able to is very frustrating (but there is a glimmer of hope). He misses his gran and she misses him very much. We don't know what will happen.

But she continues to need your prayers.