Monday = Day 1

Just wanted to post a quick note, although there is not much to report. Mom is hanging in there, slow and steady. She was in close contact with her entire team this week, both at Dana Farber and St. Francis, and has been given the green light to start the trial on Monday here in Boston. First they'll run some diagnostic tests, take some images, and then start chemo. Fortunately I live just miles from Dana Farber, so she, Gwennie, and I will head back to my place for the night just to make sure she tolerates it well, then they'll return to Connecticut Tuesday morning.

Her primary issues as of late are the overall discomfort from the blocked lymphatic flow (remember, cheerios on a string), and very low potassium. They attempted an IV infusion of potassium last week, which did not go over well, to say the least. Mom nearly jumped out of her skin with pain and palpitations, and a not-so-nice nurse (remember Howard? worse...) did not take her very seriously. Judy showed up shortly there after and regulated, thank goodness. So now Mom is on daily potassium supplements, and hopefully with the initiation of chemo, this diffuse feeling of engorgement will go down.

If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me, "I don't know how you do it!" I would be a very wealthy little lady. I never know quite how to respond to comments such as these. I don't know how any of us deal with adversity, we just do. Every day, we are faced with hardship, and with each challenge, we have a choice in how we respond. Personally, I just look at the kids I take care of, or my mother. This isn't happening to me, this is happening to her, and if she can handle this with grace and beauty, you best believe I'm going to try and do the same.

Where she gets her strength, that's a whole other story! It's from all of you. E (my second mother) making phone calls, Coco offering suggestions, Joy giving up rides, Marilyn (my other second mother) dropping off chinese food, and Claudia's pears. The list goes on and on and on. It brought tears to my eyes this morning when my mother said to me, "if I die to today, I will die so happy and blessed." Ain't it the truth.