Good News After Cancer

After 6 years, my Mom was released from her oncologist today.  
For good.

She is doing so well cancer- wise.  There are no signs of cancer that we know of.  He also feels like it's a lot on her to keep going to doctor's visits to see him, taking up an afternoon of her time with the wheel chair etc.  It's just a lot now a days for her to go to the doctor.
It has been a long road for my mom since 2001 when she was first diagnosed with colon cancer.... and God has been so good to walk her through some of the most scary and hard times of surgery, many chemo treatments, radiation, five weeks in the ICU at one point in 2006, lots of doctors appointments, follow ups, and more over this 11 year period.  It's been a privilege to walk with her through these times.
I'm grateful in many ways to this doctor who just released her,  because he was pivotal in helping to lengthen Mom's life.  He made some tough decisions around Christmas of 2008 when her Non Hodgkins Lymphoma came back a second time. He made the choice to say, "no chemo" instead of treating her.  That quality of life decision for her has turned into three wonderful years of having Mom with us. 

The day the doctor pulled my brother and I out into the hallway at the hospital that Christmas and told us the tumor on her leg was Non Hodgkins again, was a tough day for all of us.  She almost died in 2006 after five weeks in the ICU with a tumor wrapped around the base of her windpipe.  She survived that with God's grace and with chemo treatments.  It was rough.  This day was different.  The doctor gave her "months to live" this time.  He said it was a completely different ball game.  When NHL comes back into the tissue it is much more aggressive and harder to treat.  More aggressive steps must be taken to rid the body of it and put it back into remission.  This meant chemo again, but he didn't want to do that to Mom.  He said she would live longer with quality of life without chemo than if he treated her.  So a Hospice decision was made at that time too. 

Talk about shock.


I'll never forget the sweet way he talked to Mom that day.  She was sitting up on her hospital bed.  She was teary eyed and he explained what was happening.  "I can't cure you this time or put this into remission for you.  I can still treat you with radiation to shrink this area and see if that helps,  You will still be my patient I will care for you, but that's all I can do for you right now."  


Mom nodded her head and through this entire explanation do you know what she did?  She with tears, thanked the doctor for all that he had already done for her.  Yes, that's right.  She was thankful and full of gratitude.  That is my mom.  


Dad commented it would be nice if we could have another 2 years or something like that.  I was thinking, "Do we have TWO months??"  None of us had any idea.  We were all thrown for a loop.


However as I sat on my mom's hospital bed next to her she looked at me and said, "Well, months might mean  " twelve"!  She was 100% serious. That fighting spirit of never giving up came out. The same fighting spirit she had when diagnosed with diabetes and she told the doctors she'd double her life expectancy of twenty-five years.  

You know what?
She was right.  And she was wrong.
After a round of radiation treatments and many many prayers, we did have twelve months and those twelve months turned into 38 months, we're working on 39. 

My miracle mom.
So many people tell me she is amazing.  "Oh your mom is totally an amazing woman!  Look at what she's been through and survived!"  She wouldn't call herself amazing. She never puffs herself up, she's always so humble.
  I think she's amazing.  All of us who love her think she is, but who is amazing through her is God.  He is the amazing one.  Mom didn't make the cancer go away.  She'll be the first to tell you that.  So why did it?  I know many people who have had loved ones who have lost the battle of cancer, including my grandmother, Mike's grandfathers, many friends of my parents and parents of my friends.  Why them Lord?  Why couldn't they be with their loved ones like Mom is with us?  It's not fair. Cancer is not fair, it is no respecter of persons.  My heart absolutely breaks for those who are still grieving the loss of someone special due to cancer.  I know survivors too, and their journeys and their stories of gratefulness.

I don't have an answer to this question. Put simply God's ways are not my ways.  There must be a reason I don't understand.  I am just grateful for all He has done.  I must give him the credit for this.  The doctors did not cure my mother in 2009.  They will be the first to tell you that too.  
So I'm left with gratitude.  Unending gratitude for more time than I'd ever think I'd have with my favorite lady in my life.  We live in the moment because we just never ever know what is around the corner medically.  Things could change in a blink of an eye.  If they do, we will still thank God for the good times we have had and move forward with his grace.


I'm thankful for the compassionate doctor that said, "No" to chemo.
I'm thankful for the countless prayers for my Mom over the years.
I'm thankful for God's healing touch.

When I look at where she's come from with cancer, Colon cancer in 2001, Non Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2006 and 2008,  it is nothing short of a miracle to me.  God has allowed my mother to continue to have Type 1 diabetes..... 62 years and counting.  This disease takes daily vigilance, but God has sustained her in so many ways throughout that journey and given her wonderful support to live a normal life even today. Once again I'm so very grateful.
 
Moma, We love you so very much.