Truth is Stanger than Fiction

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn't." Mark Twain

This has been a good description for my life, and more specifically, my family’s life the past couple of years. Just to refresh memories, 3 years ago this last March my nephew, Connor, passed away from a rare cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue. He was diagnosed at the age of 6, went through a year of chemo and radiation before passing away at the age of 7.

Fast forward exactly one year, March 2009, my sister, Michelle, passed away from Brain Cancer. This is once again, a fairly rare and very aggressive cancer. She had headaches for several months and had been doing tests with the doctors before she finally went to the ER and they found the tumor. Within three days of finding the tumor she was in a coma and a month from the discovery she passed away. Michelle was 33 years old.

For the last several months my mom has been extremely tired. My parents thought it was because of sleep apnea. As the months progressed she said she started to notice that she got light headed easily, while doing her hair in the morning for instance. At the beginning of May my parents tried to go for a short walk and my mom almost passed out. My dad insisted she go to the doctor and a few days later she did.

By the afternoon of her appointment she had the doctor and the hospital calling her to get to the hospital immediately for a blood transfusion. They gave her two units of blood and sent her on her way with more tests to follow. After a month of other testing she swallowed a camera on June 1. The results came back showing that she had an obtrusion of about an inch or inch and a half in her small intestine. They did a scan to try to get a better look at it and found that she also had spots on her liver. After a biopsy of her liver it was determined that she has a rare form of cancer, neuroendocrine carcinoma, that started in her small intestines but has been spreading.

We don’t really know what this will mean for her. From what we have been able to find out this is a slow growing cancer that she probably has had for a long time. Also from what we have been able to find out chemotherapy doesn’t really work very well on this cancer although there are usually other medications that she can take to help. Really though, she has not been able to meet with an oncologist yet so we don’t know exactly what we are dealing with.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared to death. This news has really shaken my family and once again is trying each and every one of us. Our mama has been the core of our family and was often the strong one through the other two cancer battles. Now we are looking probably losing her to cancer at some point.
Truth is stranger than fiction.

Who would have thought that cancer could strike one family three times in such a short period. I am grateful for the knowledge that we have of an eternal family, that we can try to picture this from an eternal perspective. That seems to help some days while some days it doesn’t seem to make a difference. I can’t help but cry and hurt. I keep trying to remind myself that all is not lost. We still have a chance to try to fight to at least prolong her life if not save it. I will try to keep focused on enjoying the time we have and making each moment count. Besides, she is the best mom/grandma ever and there is plenty to enjoy.