Putting Cancer Into Perspective

Tami’s stats:

Urgent Care Visits – 12

ER Visits –   10

Hospitalizations –  7

Surgeries – 2

Doctor Appointments –  more than 50

Chemo Infusions –  about 20

Radiation Treatments –  7

Blood Draws –  too many to count

Scans/Tests –  more than 20

Medications – more than 15 at various times

Side Effects – nausea, loss of appetite, hair thinning, acne, fatigue, chemo brain, memory loss, vomiting, tingling in fingers and toes, twitching in eyes, numb tongue, mouth sores, runny nose, constipation, diarrhea, bowel colitis.

There were times when we were at a doctor, infusion, scan, test every day of the week.  Pure exhaustion is what she felt most of the time.  After looking again at the above, I don’t blame her.  There was barely energy to get out of bed, shower, get dressed, eat, etc.  In her own way, however, she was able to muster up enough energy to do those things and to continue to be the wonderful mother, daughter, sister, best friend, ministry leader she was.  We were told on several occasions that laughter was truly her best medicine as it releases tons of good chemicals within the body to boost the immune system.  We started watching movies like Madasgar, Click, Hitch…anything that would make her laugh.  It was also good to see her laugh, even in the midst of all of the above.  Oh, how I miss laughing with her, and watching those movies with her.  In light of all she went through, I would not want her to experience another day of all that as I know she is in complete peace now.  Cancer truly sucks.