Roller Coaster Ride

       Lately it feels like we have been on a roller coaster ride that i never wanted to experience.  So many people in our small circle of friends and family on this planet have been dealing with cancer. 

      I have been blogging about both of my parents experiences…a tv anchor named Robin Roberts…a lady in our church, friends of my parents, my son’s “young” teacher, my adult daughter’s friend who was married just days before finding out that she had a very aggressive breast cancer and a friend of mine from Az.

     My dad has been struggling with the after effects of the chemo with kidney stones and then in the last two weeks with a blood clot.  They are still trying to regulate his blood thinner medications to help prevent more clots from forming.  The treatments are brutal sometimes.  The disease is just as devastating. 

      What do you do?  You have to follow your instincts…even the doctors will tell you there is no guarantees with this type of treatment or that.  You have to have information to make informed decisions.  After all, you are the one going through it all.

     Last night, we talked with our friend from Az and he had an appointment yesterday to discuss the course of treatments he will receive.  He had surgery about 3 weeks ago to remove the tumor in his colon.  Now they are going to do chemo.  It will be 3 weeks off and then 5 days on chemo.  I pray that the treatments go well.

     His wife was unprepared for the dr.s to talk about percentages of survival.  They say he has a 50% chance of living for 5 years if he doesn’t have chemo.  They say he has a 65% chance of survival for 5 years if he has it.  Yet, they tell him that they got all of the cancer.  What the heck?   Crazy talk.

     We all know that percentages are so variable.  No one knows these things except God.  It is nuts.  My friend “M” has a sister in the hospital right now.  She has been struggling with ovarian cancer for the last 3 years.  Chemo right and left as well as surgeries.  Now they are telling the family that it is a very aggressive cancer and that she “maybe” has 6 months to live.  How discouraging.  She is tired of fighting.  She is depressed and hurting. 

       It is imperative that doctors realize that they need to treat the “whole” person who is afflicted with cancer.  They need physical, emotional, surgical, and spiritual treatments.  It is an all out battle for life and for the quality of that life!  People dont want to “just” survive…they want to “LIVE”!!!

      It seems everywhere you look someone is “dealing” with cancer or it’s after effects.  I watch Good Morning America almost every day.  Robin Roberts looks good; and, she is using her diagnosis of breast cancer to inform the viewers.   Just like a friend she is letting us in.   I love that about her. 

      She is a beautiful, spiritual, giving person.  I pray that she heals completely.  What i truly love about her is that she exhibits grace in the way that she has been handeling her situation.  She is letting others into her experience.  The good and the bad.  She downplays her struggles i think a bit…but , i think patients in general do that out of a fear of sounding like they are feeling sorry for themselves.

     I know my dad worries about how people perceive him.  He worries that they think he is “sick all the time”.  The problem is that he has been healthy most of his life…so he feels  weak to be ill.  Each person has their own struggles with the illness and their treatments.  Dont get tired of listening.  They need the support. 

     

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