Friday 29 January 2010

How Many Shoes?

"Fiver?", said the rabbit. "Why's he called that?"
"Five in the litter, you know: he was the last..."
Rabbits can count up to four. Any number above four is hrair - "a lot", or "a thousand"
.

"Waiting for the other shoe to drop" seems to be the life of many cancer patients and their carers. Once diagnosed with the Big "C", there's always uncertainty about whether it will return; every lump, bump and pain becomes a possible recurrence. Since Christine's original brush with breast cancer in February 2005 we've been through this several times, and it never gets any easier. There are prods and pokes and scans of varying types; mostly (we've been fortunate) the tests are negative, once in a while they aren't. We recently had another shoe drop (Christine was diagnosed with a regional recurrence in lymph nodes in her neck a little over a year ago) but were confident that the treatment she had then would whack it for a few years.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Just about a year after finishing the last round of her (second) chemotherapy treatment she was getting headaches of increasing intensity. This, coupled by her fatigue, prompted her to go for a checkup. Her oncologist suggested an MRI, and so yesterday we hied off to Sacramento to have the poor lass stuck in a tube for an hour while various electromagnetic wossnames whirled and clanked around her. Tests over, the waiting began for the results, which came back in today.

Suffice to say, we've had another shoe drop, the third in just under five years. The MRI showed a small growth of uncertain nature in her brain, and because one of the places that breast cancer metastasizes is the brain, this has aroused enough suspicion that her oncologist recommended that she have gamma knife treatment and a third course of chemotherapy.

She called me today while I was out visiting friends. The conversation went along these lines:

Christine: So, do you want the good news first, or the bad news?
Me: Good news.
Christine: I got the kitchen cleaned up!
Me: Oh, well done you! And the bad news...? (As though I didn't know what it was going to be.)
Christine: I got a phone call, the results are in.
Me: And...?
Christine: They found something in the scan.
Me: Well, FART!
Christine: My response exactly.

The rest is predictable. I came home, shaking slightly. Now we have to tell Tessie, who at 11 years of age, has been through so much, with good grace, courage and resilience. But we'll all be scared. It's not just lumps and bumps now, and we have no idea how many more shoes there are to drop. Hopefully, it won't be hrair.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jesus, Werty, that's terrible. You and Christine and Tessie will be in our thoughts and prayers.

PhatDad said...

Kev,

It's been a while since we last spoke and even longer since you moved abroad but on reading your blog I felt compelled to write.

I'm not religious so can't send you prayers but will send good thoughts your way and hope all works out well for you and more importantly Christine.

If you need a shoulder feel free to contact me mate.

By the way, the mirror you helped me mount on our living room wall is still up. You can imagine the pain my ears are in listening to Alison moaning about the room not being decorated for so long. :)

Take care,

Ian

Audrey said...

I wish there was something I could do for you guys.

Kevin Weedon said...

Prayers and whatnot are always welcome. We'd had prayers from all manner of Christians, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus and even the Atheists got in on the action.

Kind thoughts expressed are of great comfort, so never fear that you only say "I wish I could do something". You already did.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Kevin, thinking of all of you. I was on call at Madigan on Thursday for obstetrics and got to do a delivery. I was delighted because I didn't think I'd do obstetrics any more after the PT hospital and I parted ways. Post call when Chris called and on my way to talk to an oncologist about an inpatient. So I told her and she was encouraging, has someone 4 years out from just this. It was the encouraging and offering of hope that made me tear up. We sang the Mozart Requiem last night beautifully; I was thinking about you guys the whole time.

Love, Katy

Unknown said...

[Ysardo and Ch'i-Lin] add their prayers to the list

Walnut Woman said...

I am good at picking up shoes - sign me up for assistance when shoes fall. I am also good at liming - so let's get together. Love Walnut Woman

oakling said...

I love you guys!