Better Than I Thought
My mother HATES to have her sleep interrupted. HATES it! H...A...T...E...S it!! It pisses her off something fierce!! Few things really bring out the dragon in her than being woken up in the middle of the night for something that isn't particularly important.
This is because she used to be a respiratory therapist and often had to be on call. And at any given time, her beeper would go off in the middle of the night and she would have to get up, put on uniform and rush down to the ER to help someone breathe or keep the heart going whilst surgeons did whatever they needed to do.
This is why I didn't want to call her last night. But I re-checked the time after leaving that entry and decided to go ahead and try to call, as she might still be up. And she was. So we had a good conversation. The first ten minutes, I had a hard time articulating because I was crying. But she did the talking and I quickly noticed that she was more confident than I expected, and so our two hour conversation went well and even did the usual thing of wandering from one subject to another.
She has a good chance of recovery because they found the cancer during "phase 2", which is a "safe" phase, (phase 3 is more precarious and phase 4 is nearly too late). She has confidence in her doctor...who is not only very good but also has excellent bedside manner, very warm and friendly and reassuring.
My ma has Fibromyalgia (sic?)...a condition I don't rightly understand, except that it means the body has become unnaturally sensitive. A pinch to the skin hurts a LOT! A scary movie can really terrify the viewer. Loud noises are nearly deafening and can leave the person shaking. So...it's this that bothers me. This is why I worry that she might die from chemo. I told her my fear and she acknowledged calmly. She doesn't seem too concerned about that. In fact, as far as chemo goes, she seemed to be thinking more about what kind of wig to wear since she will lose her hair. Her main concern was if she had to get a mastectomy. And even that is not so big of a deal. She explained that there is now a Federal law which states that if a breast has to be removed, then an implant has to be made and it either has to be adjusted to look like the healthy breast, or the healthy one adjusted to look like it, so that both breasts look equal and healthy. Insurance will not cover a willful cosmetic surgery but in a case of breast cancer, it becomes mandated so the insurance will cover it. So my mother's husbund is happy to know that this might resolve possibly in her having a nicer set of boobs.
I feel better today. Knowing my mother is confident makes me feel confident. And I'm glad I took the chance and called her last night, risking possible wrath of interrupted sleep, because otherwise, I might have slept pretty fitfully myself.
So it's not that things are all hunkydory. But the situation is definitely better than I thought.
This is because she used to be a respiratory therapist and often had to be on call. And at any given time, her beeper would go off in the middle of the night and she would have to get up, put on uniform and rush down to the ER to help someone breathe or keep the heart going whilst surgeons did whatever they needed to do.
This is why I didn't want to call her last night. But I re-checked the time after leaving that entry and decided to go ahead and try to call, as she might still be up. And she was. So we had a good conversation. The first ten minutes, I had a hard time articulating because I was crying. But she did the talking and I quickly noticed that she was more confident than I expected, and so our two hour conversation went well and even did the usual thing of wandering from one subject to another.
She has a good chance of recovery because they found the cancer during "phase 2", which is a "safe" phase, (phase 3 is more precarious and phase 4 is nearly too late). She has confidence in her doctor...who is not only very good but also has excellent bedside manner, very warm and friendly and reassuring.
My ma has Fibromyalgia (sic?)...a condition I don't rightly understand, except that it means the body has become unnaturally sensitive. A pinch to the skin hurts a LOT! A scary movie can really terrify the viewer. Loud noises are nearly deafening and can leave the person shaking. So...it's this that bothers me. This is why I worry that she might die from chemo. I told her my fear and she acknowledged calmly. She doesn't seem too concerned about that. In fact, as far as chemo goes, she seemed to be thinking more about what kind of wig to wear since she will lose her hair. Her main concern was if she had to get a mastectomy. And even that is not so big of a deal. She explained that there is now a Federal law which states that if a breast has to be removed, then an implant has to be made and it either has to be adjusted to look like the healthy breast, or the healthy one adjusted to look like it, so that both breasts look equal and healthy. Insurance will not cover a willful cosmetic surgery but in a case of breast cancer, it becomes mandated so the insurance will cover it. So my mother's husbund is happy to know that this might resolve possibly in her having a nicer set of boobs.
I feel better today. Knowing my mother is confident makes me feel confident. And I'm glad I took the chance and called her last night, risking possible wrath of interrupted sleep, because otherwise, I might have slept pretty fitfully myself.
So it's not that things are all hunkydory. But the situation is definitely better than I thought.