The strongest woman I know.

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tl;dr My mom has cancer (this ended up being a lot longer than I intended).

My mom. My first teacher. My first friend. The woman who taught me how to be a mom.

She was diagnosed with cancer in April 2021. Stage IV metastatic breast cancer that had already spread into her organs and her back. Inoperable.

She endured a course of radiation therapy, followed by a round of chemo. Her cancer responded well to the treatment and by April of 2022, her numbers for her cancer markers had dropped significantly.

And then they went back up. Higher than they were when she was first diagnosed.
Another round of chemo… she lost her hair, but never her hope. Then she developed pretty significant neuropathy in her hands and feet, coupled with swelling and fluid retention in her lungs and abdomen.

Her oncologist ended her treatment prematurely because of the side effects she was having.

A few months later, she started a more intensive chemotherapy. She stayed on that up until last week, with no improvement.

Last Sunday, we were supposed to get out and do something together with all of my kiddos. Something we haven’t done much of in the last two years because of her decreased immunity, COVID risk factors, and my fear of getting her sick.

Saturday night/Sunday morning she messaged me that she was going to the ER for extreme abdominal pain. She had a systemic E. coli infection and she was extremely jaundiced and swollen.

A week later, and she’s still in the hospital. Her infection has cleared, but her liver has multiple lesions and just isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. She’s weak and struggled to catch her breath after just a few short steps.

Her oncologist will start another round of chemo in a couple weeks, but it doesn’t sound promising. It’s not a very long lasting treatment and it has a relatively low response rate. That is, if her liver will restore function enough to be able to start it at all.

I’m really trying not to mourn her loss before she’s fully gone, but it’s [i]hard[/i].