He's Like A Detuned Radio

I've been debating on how I should approach the lack of details on the past few months only to realize there is no right way to do this. I realize word has likely spread around over the past few weeks and months, and I know that while people are concerned, I always know how difficult it can be to ask me about what's going on. I wrote this email to a friend of mine in Windsor today summarizing the past 9 weeks and the issues surrounding my mother's chemotherapy and the metastasized breast cancer that now resides in her lung in three separate places.

"We actually had chemo today. Next week will actually be the first week where we'll be able to sleep in on a "chemo" day. It was supposed to be 3 on, 1 off originally; all on Wednesdays. So my mom got chemo on October 11 and October 18. On the 25th, her haemoglobin levels were too low and she didn't have chemo. So they decided to change the schedule to 2 on, 1 off. On the 1st of November, she got a shot which helps produce haemoglobin levels and had chemo. On the 8th, her white blood levels were too low and there was no chemo. The following Monday, she met with the Doctor, who in addition to prescribing her Losec (to combat the acid-reflux problems) switched treatment to Tuesdays and decided to decrease the dosage by 15%. So there was now chemo the next day, the 14th and it was scheduled again for the 21st. But last week, my mom's neutrophil levels were too low, so no chemo again. And she was switched to 1 on, 1 off. So there was chemo today and it isn't scheduled again until December 12th. There are a couple of doctor's appointments between now and then so things may change again.

I figure with the change from 3 and 1 to 1 and 1, it should lengthen out the whole thing from 6 to 9 months to 9 to 13.5 months, assuming it's linear. I don't really know how it works."

So that's now...prior to this, it all started in the middle of July. The chemotherapy originally started the week of July 17. There was one session before my mom had a seizure on the 24th at 4:00 in the morning. It was the result of lesion forming on her brain. After a stressful week in the hospital and two consultations with surgeons, surgery was scheduled for August 10 and was successful in removing the lesion. 3 months later, my mom's hand still shakes because of the trauma to the fine motor skill section of her brain. It's not really noticeable unless she's holding cutlery or a pen.

After recovering from the surgery, radiation had to be done to ensure that the lesion didn't re-form on her brain. This started the week of September 11 for five days straight. Suffice it to say, exposing the brain to radiation has a number of negative effects and it took nearly 3 weeks for these side effects to go away.

And that now brings us back to the email.

So I’ve been taking care of my mother all of this time if you were wondering. Due to the seizure, she’s had her license revoked until a year after the seizure’s occurance. So I shop, run errands, do laundry, cook. We have a cleaning lady come in on Fridays and she’s a big help. I had a tough enough time keeping an empty house in Windsor clean, let alone this one here. No one wants to read a blog where I talk about how today I did 3 loads of laundry and made a trip to Dominion to get one banana and a block of old cheddar.

I haven’t really been looking for a job and don’t plan on it until May at the earliest when my sister will be done her degree at Waterloo and back home. Last I heard she might be planning to go to Grad School so she can help out in the summer and hopefully by next fall this will all be over.

I think that’s it, it’s been hectic so I may have forgotten some details. Anything you want to ask, leave a comment or send me an email, I don’t mind talking about it.