Report From Florida

I arrived in FL on Thursday and am returning to Prov tomorrow morning, Wednesday.

Mom finished her chemo and radiation last week.

This week was supposed to be a relief from the nausea induced by both, but it hasn't really happened.

That said, overall, Mom is doing better than I thought she would be. Although she is tired, she doesn't spend her days in bed. As she like to say, other than a little cancer and parkinson's, she is healthy.

I went with her to the doctor on Friday (she is getting shots to boost red blood cell count).
She drove. She is still independent and can do most anything for herself.

She gets frustrated with her cough. Although she is still coughing, she notes that she swallows better than she was a few weeks ago. So not only did the Dr tell her the tumor was shrinking, but she is actually feeling the improvement.

Next Dr appointment is a week from Friday with Cat Scan a couple of days before. The possibilities are endless, so neither doctro has talked about options for continued treatment, etc.

We will just have to wait and, God willing, the tests will show no spread as well as remission of the tumor.

As much as the physical strains of fighting the cancer and dealing with the stress induced by the treatments and their side effects, I'm sorry to say that not only ahs family not been helpful, but has added to the stress.

How sad that you can reach the the 7th and 8th decade of your life and still think that is more important to be right than to be there for your family. But so it is. Mom and her older sister Sis, are not speaking anymore. I just hope they resolve it before one of them goes and the other has to live with not being able to apologize. In business, we ask, "Do you want to eb right, or do you want to be effective?" I know there is a corrallary for personal relationships too. But then i don't know what its likle to ehpa 80 years of resentment on top of it. All I know is it is sad.

Meanwhile, Mom's younger sister, Ruth, has decided to rally the family to support Sis in her lack of support for her sister fighting cancer. Go figure. Perhaps she was dissapointed that Mom wasn't sick enough to need to be taken care of just yet.

Ostensibly the whole dispute started because the sisters were frustrated that Mort isn't doing enough for Mom. Now, I don't remember Mort's eccentricities being an issue in their (the sister's) relationships before, but ow that they care so deepy about their sick sister, they decide to exert themselves in Mom's marriage.

So ultimately, what happened is that out of there deep love for mom and that she be cared for, they ahve somehow decided that the best way to help is to try to cause tension in her marriage and failing that, to walk away themselves. Perhaps someday someone will explain to me how that expresses their love.

Of course, if they all keep this up, with two of them fighting parkinsons, one jsut finsihed fighting cancer and one in the midst of it, and the third debilitated with a bad back and in her 80's... well, I'm not quite sure they will ahve the time to work things out between themselves before its too late. Where is Aunt Mimi to beat some sense into her younger sisters when you need her (I'm not sure she ever did, but who knows).

So that's it. Mom hasn't coughed in an hour and that's good news.
She is still nauseated but not nauseous.
I guess her sisters have a lock on that one.

Joshua