Mom’s Will to Live is Strong!

Mom, Poppie and Brian met with Mom’s Oncology Head Nurse Friday morning. The news was not good. Mom is now up at 84% blasts. This means that her bone marrow is aggressively producing the AML and it is peripheral into her blood. Her Doctor’s are encouraging Mom and the rest of us to be patient and allow the new Chemo Injections to take effect. The biopsy results on Mom’s upper torso front and back have not come in yet. Actually, Mom said she is O.K. not knowing the results. It is one less thing to focus on.

I need not express the intense emotions that filled Mom and the rest of us today.
Earlier in the week, I had spoken with Mom’s Oncology Head Nurse to get the details on her present medical condition. Kimmy and I were informed that Mom’s blasts on Tuesday increased to 72% from 53% in less than a week. We decided it would be best for me to fly home as soon as possible. Kimmy will be flying out on April 19
as we had planned originally for the two of us.

After receiving the tests results Friday morning, Kimmy and I decided to tell Mom and Poppie about my surprise to come home yesterday. We felt Mom and Poppie needed some good news after the Friday appointment and give them something to look forward to so I told them that I changed my flight to come home Saturday at 12:04 am. Mom immediately went into deep sobs. She let go and shared her immense fears around the recent test results, her not knowing how long she really has to live, and her fears on how will Poppie live without her and the rest of the family simply was overwhelming her.

Kimmy and I realized my unannounced arrival to come home early may possibly throw her deeper into fear and that she would believe we were told she had a small window of time to live. Sure enough this was what she had thought at first. After expressing this to me over the phone, Mom and I knew we needed to be in the same space. Mom and I were craving to feel and see each other and share this process to its entirety . Mom, after a few more minutes talking on the phone she quickly pulled herself together.

Mom started listing what she was going to do with excitement to get my room and the house ready for my arrival. Poppie, as well regrouped and his focus was on what he loves doing the most. Yup, to go food shopping. He quickly did a food inventory in the house with Mom while I was on the phone in the airport listening. After our phone call, he ran out to Wegmans to get additional items that I could enjoy. Truly their pleasures are mine, wink.

I arrived safely at the airport. Brian, Mom and Poppie picked me up. Mom’s energy level was extremely low when I arrived. As the hour passed into 1 am this morning, Brian returned home, Poppie went to bed and Mom and I did what we do best; we talked like college friends to wee hours of the night. We covered many topics and Mom got her second wind. Mom was back to her old self and I kept mentioning we better settle in for bed since we needed to be up and out by 9am to head to the hospital. Mom giggled and said she has not had this much energy since I left Rochester several weeks ago.

Prior to heading in for the a few hours of sleep, Mom wanted me to do a detailed look over from head to toe on her. I also took a look at her injection sights, her skin markings, her biopsies, various mystery bruising, and lastly checked all the previous skin biopsies. She then insisted it was my turn to share and she looked at all my skin markings and how well my biopsy is coming along. What a pair we are, wink. We soon gave each other big hugs, a few kisses, Mom tucked me in and we said we see each other in a few hours. It felt wonderful for both of us to be together again.

I will keep you closely posted as the days pass. We are now leaving for the hospital to receive her day 5 of 7 for Chemo injection for the day.

Lots of Love and thank you for your endless prayers,
Karen