The "C" Word

Plum Blossom

While this is supposed to be just a knitting blog, the Outside World inevitably is gonna seep through that thin virtual membrane.

Cancer is a lurking threat in both my and my husband's families. My mother had breast cancer twenty three years ago. She survived treatment and remained cancer free for eighteen years. Then five years ago small tumors showed up on her annual exam. Those were also removed and she has been on Tamoxifen ever since.

Two months ago, they discovered a new lump. She has since undergone a second mastectomy and has tested clear for any cancer in her lymph nodes. Since this has been determined to be a new cancer that is resistant to her current drug therapy, she started chemotherapy last week.

She will continue treatment through November. So far her appetite has been effected the most. She will lose her hair. I think it is the thought of her losing all that thick, beautiful hair again that has me the most devasted.

They have asked that my brother and I stay away for now as she and Dad work out how to live between treatments. To keep from going insane The Mr. and I have been planning small care packages for her. Things to help encourage her appetite. Things to give her comfort. Things to make us feel like we're doing something for her.

I've started on a chemo cap (Berroco's free pattern) and will be knitting E. Zimmerman's Pi shawl once I get my hands on the pattern. I'm not exactly sure when she'll start losing her hair, but I want her to be able to surround herself with warm woolie things from me since I can't be there. It is starting to get cooler now, even in Texas.

I don't think I was really totally aware of what was happening to my mother, to my father, to our extended family twenty three years ago (heck, I was seven). The stone-cold reality of it all is still only now starting to sink in. My mother is a strong woman, and I know that Dad will take good care of her during this tenuous time. Still, she will probably have to be the rock to which the rest of us cling. I just wish I could do more than fret and knit and make lists.