News of the Boobs

[saffronhare]

Mom is finishing up her second of an eventual six weeks of radiation therapy. It's relatively simple and quick -- not even painful -- but she's getting tired. The commute back and forth seems to wear her out, and she's starting to describe the treatment room as a "torture chamber."

Today was the first time in months that she's called me in tears. There's something she figured was just a pimple on her breast, but the docs are worried it's some sort of infection (perhaps the beginning of a staph infection) and that's got her a bit freaked out. And now she's got one more medication to remember to take for a week or so. It's overloaded her RAM and her tolerance for Shit Going Wrong, you know?

She was sort of teary-eyed and light-headed in the car. I talked her into stopping at Panera for a bowl of french onion soup and a roll with lots of butter on it (one of her top ten favorite things in the whole wide world and very heartening stuff), and we stayed on the phone until she'd eaten and felt better. Dad will drive her tomorrow and she'll get a friend to start helping her with the drive next week. Seemed she'd tried calling my brother and (quite understandably) gotten his voice mail...she was trying to ask him to please call her at 2 p.m. to remind her to take her antibiotics. Sort of a strange thing to attach so much emotional weight to, but there you go.

She's worried about the weeds in her garden getting out of control. Dad doesn't understand why it bothers her or why she can't just let them be. He sure can't do the weeding. And the chemicals in her pool won't balance out so she can't go floating/swimming to relax the way she likes. It's just a no-good-very-bad day all around. I sort of wish I had a long weekend to spare, to fly down and tend to those things for her. She's going to go ahead and hire some people to help out with those tasks for the next couple of months. But even if I *did* go down there, those are the sorts of things that'd need to be done over and over again anyway. My aunt will be there in a couple of weeks, so maybe that'll help cheer her up.

In the meantime, I've set an alarm on my phone for 1 p.m. Central time so I can remember to give her a cheerful reminder call. Four more weeks of radiation to go.

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

i'm sorry about her weariness, but it sounds familiar. my gerry got so worn out from radiation that he'd sleep in the back of the minivan all the way there and all the way home. it's a constant, low-grade hit on the body, and it adds up.

it's good she'll have loved ones who can call her and/or come in to help. hope someone can get her pool chemicals right so she can relax in the water.

continued best wishes to her.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

She really did well on chemo...I think she figured she'd breeze through radiation, since there weren't any needles involved. Or something.

[akaashben.livejournal.com]

{{Hugs}}

[womanofsalt.livejournal.com]

big giant hugs and kisses to you and mom...I'm glad she's getting rides. Radiation was my mom's number one enemy (I think there is a general shock about radiation being so bad for post chemo patients b/c they hear that radiation doesn't have the over-the-top side effects, etc...which is true if you haven't just gotten done surviving the surgery and the chemo first).