One Year In The Shadow
Friday, July 8, 2011 at 9:15AM | by Otter It was a little over a year ago that my mother was diagnosed with cancer.
The oncologist said then that we could expect a matter of months.
That's a year under a haunting, a year of clutching at therapies, watching, waiting, trying to love with all that we have.
Mom's done really well. She's tough, a fighter, and she's not ready to die.
But every small ripple in her health makes us think, "Is it coming back? Is it time?"
Well, it does seem to be back.
Mom's in the ER now, her symptoms the same as the ones that got us here in the first place.
The chemo was suspended because of her failing weight and strength, casualties of this strange thing that happens in our bodies, the way our cells change and turn on us.
I'm off to the hospital. A friend and sometime-contributor at RipChurch, writes of her own experience in hospitals recently with her own mother,
I had been speculating earlier this week as to why [Harry Potter author] J.K. Rowling never mentioned the presence of Dementors at [wizard hospital] St. Mungo's. I'm pretty sure they are responsible for slowing the rate of time in addition to their usual effects.
True.
We sleep in those strange sterile places, and we find that the glacier of change has not apparently moved from the place where we left it, unless you count the busy, busy cells that are turning on us and seem content never to sleep.
Cancer, Chemotherapy, Death, Harry Potter, Hospitals, Life, Susan R. in Cancer, Personal Reflection, Relationships 
Reader Comments (1)
Thank you for updating, but I'm so sorry to hear that it may be back. Cancer sucks. I love the way that you worded the effect of the last year "trying to love with all that we have". It speaks volumes.
And while "all that we have" isn't enough to beat the C, it is enough to know that we love, and to know that we have told others of our love.
I will be thinking about and praying for your family.