Mom's First C-Card

By now you all may know that my Mommy, Teresa, has tired of being an average gal and has joined a new, semi-exclusive club called CANCER.  

A little background:  

For a while now, I've been giving her a hard time about being a pushy, old lady who gets whatever she wants and doesn't care what you have to say about it, dammit.  You know, one who typically pulls the, "Who do I need to talk to to get some service around here?" kind of pushy, old lady.  Know what I'm saying?  

Even though I love her very, very much, I can't help but want to keep telling her the same things she used to tell me, and probably still would:  "Too bad"; "Life isn't fair"; "You'll be just fine"; and her favorite "Because I said so."  We've all gotten by with a little less than we'd prefer, right? 

Not good enough for Momma.  

That attention-seeker went and got cancer.  Now I have to do whatever she says and give her whatever she wants.  And, of course, so do you.  

So far she has only pulled the C-Card for those of us who have driven her to do so with our doting and in-your-face concern and all of those things the (not really) attention-seeker truly hates.  But your time is coming. 

We will be using this blog to give everyone some details about Momma's condition, her treatment and treatment schedules and basically everything she'll allow us to share until she is truly comfortable with pulling the C-Card during each and every exchange she has with another human being (I'm sure it won't be long now). 

In time I imagine and hope we might even get some posts from the star of the show herself in her own words!

In lieu of calling the house, please use the blog to check in with her and her progress.  I'll be posting as often as there are any new developments.  Leave any messages you'd like for her on here, so that she can keep in touch at her own pace, when she is feeling good.  At this point we have no idea what to expect, so this keeps us from being overwhelmed.

Now for some specifics:

Momma was diagnosed with Large B-Cell Lymphoma a little after Thanksgiving of this year after an MRI discovered a mass in her bones and a biopsy revealed the presence of lymphoma cells.   She immediately got in with a very nice Oncologist, Dr. Saman, who seems to have a good sense of humor, and speaks very good English (a must for pushy, old white ladies).  

According to the PET scans the lymphoma has not affected any other organs or lymph areas (THANK GOD) and her cancer is at either a Stage 2 or 4, pending the results of another biopsy.  

Regardless of stages, her treatment starts NEXT WEEK and will consist of 6 long, boring, possibly uncomfortable treatments of chemotherapy, each of them 21 days apart.  She'll have them at the treatment center right in the oncologist's office, where I fully expect her to be the "Belle of the Ball," interested in chatting with all of her new friends.  I also have wonderful visions of her being the "Popular Girl" after her good friend, Ms. Pamala Stanley,  treats everyone in the center to a private concert of all of her best disco and dance tunes.  We'll see if that one happens, but wouldn't that be so fun?? 

Here's to hoping the chemo turns out as fun as it sounds!  We'll be sure to update and let you know if our suspicions are true. 

Abbe