Rain Day


Jo-Ann just called, to tell me I was right. She's interrupting her grand tour to go home and get some rest. I had warned her the schedule seemed a bit ambitious.

Eddie's got the week off work and he's relaxing by doing a total makeover of their backyard. Moving the garden, re-sodding the lawn, building a gazebo, painting the porch. Jo-Ann decided now would be a good time to go visiting the relatives, and let Eddie and Al, their next door neighbour, enjoy their power tools without fear of disturbing her.

Starting Saturday she spent a day and a night at our sister Diane's, and then the same with Mom. She's been at Jamie's for two days, playing with her grandchildren. Today she was supposed to come to Belle River, and begin calling on her three brothers.

But the toll from last Friday's chemo session has caught up with her, and she expects to sleep all of the next 18 hours or so. It's raining today, and Eddie's taking it easy too.

Assuming she feels better tomorrow I'm going to pick her up in the late morning. We want to go out to Malden Park and see Alex run cross country for his school. Then, if she's up to it, she's coming here and we're going to spend the evening watching reruns of House.

Jo-Ann says her hair has been falling out for months, but only recently has it become noticeable. She's looking more and more like me. Last week we got the results of her last cat scan, and it was good news again. The tumour in her lung has shrunk by 50%, the other smaller one on her adrenal gland by 25%. So she and her oncologist decided to risk one more round of chemotherapy with the same drugs. I didn't ask what the alternatives were, maybe radiation, or a pause in treatment, or stronger medicine.

We've both been running into people we know at the cancer clinic. It was a bit awkward when I explained to Tony, a fellow retiree, that I was there as a "caregiver," not as a patient.

While waiting to get her blood tested, Jo-Ann met an old friend she hadn't seen in a couple of decades. Like Jo-Ann, she's been working in restaurants and bars since her teens. Fifteen years ago she got breast cancer. Since then she's been in remission several times, and had cancers re-occur in various organs. Jo-Ann was shocked, but her friend told her, "Hey, I'm a long term survivor, and I feel pretty good today. Don't give up."

The next day, at chemo, the men in the chairs on Jo-Ann's left and right were celebrating. Both of them were having their last sessions. Both were in remission, one was going back to work.



Posted: Wed - May 14, 2008 at 12:48 PM          

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