te voglio bene, madre

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mommy went for her third chemo treatment today. thank God it's only stage two breast cancer...not as good as it'd be if it were stage one, but it's better than three or four. thank God there is so much advancement in medicine today. i feel bad for all those families...all those people...i can't imagine what they must have went through upon hearing the word 'cancer.' now you hear that word, and it's dreadful, but there's a lot that can be done. so many miracle stories. so much to hope for. so much support for research in finding cures. some treatments are the scariest experiences patients may have to come across...like a mastectomy for instance. amazing doctors out there who can perform 9-hour surgeries for patients to increase their chances of living a normal life...a long life - those doctors are something else.
things have been really hard lately...for our whole family - especially for my mom, of course. every three weeks she goes for her chemo treatment. takes her pre-admissions medicine - steroids and such. she's such a trooper. doesn't let it get to her. the best story i've been told for a while was how my mom went to the store one day and the girl at the register said, "wow, i love your hair - the color and cut..it's so nice!" my mom was wearing a wig that day because she lost her hair from chemo...so...the comedienne that she is...she pulls the wig off and cheerfully says, "here!!" with a bright smile on. she later wanted to go back to the store and apologize because she felt so bad for doing that to the girl. the girl was in complete shock, but that's just the kind of attitude my mom has. she's not going to be miserable...that will just make things worse. she's going about her everyday activities ... even ones she SHOULD NOT BE DOING. gosh! i get so mad! haha...we have a cleaning lady for a reason, mom...you're not supposed to be cleaning a 4-story house. i called her a couple days ago and she was...get this...she was WASHING WINDOWS. the crazy woman! tell edyta to do it! edyta is our cleaning lady - girl i should say - she's only 24. such a sweet polish girl.
awww mommy ... it scares me a bit to think about where she would be at this point if there weren't medicine for the pain from the mastectomy, if there weren't chemo treatments, if there weren't means for her to possibly get better. to survive the whole experience. i'm so proud of her. she's taking everything so well. had we been living some time ago...what would the doctors say? "go home and rest" ? living in today's society may not be all that splendid in many ways, but i'm pretty grateful for it.

that's my beautiful mom and i at the hospital a week before her surgery.
and that's my beautiful mom, dad, and grandmother (maternal) a couple years ago.

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