My Mom and 4/5ths of Her Girls

My Mom celebrated her 76th birthday on 10-10-10, and here are two pictures of me, 3 of my 4 sisters, and my mom.

While we were arranging ourselves around mom and her chair, someone in the family looking on commented on how we looked just like "Little Women." Well, maybe...

Then some smart aleck relative (which could have been any of us, come to think of it) said he thought we looked more like the "Golden Girls!" And that got us going...

I think I laughed the hardest.

Coming Up for Air

Happy New Year!

It's been several months since I've posted anything at all.  After spending most of September in bouts of crying about not having been to go be with my dying mother since her battle with cancer began, we decided that it was time for me to go see her as soon as I could.  I was looking at my schedule to see how to juggle my classes to get there for Christmas, but my husband said Christmas might be too late.  So, I juggled my classes and squeezed in a ten-day visit in October.  Her cancer had entered her brain in the latter part of August, and she began living with my first younger sister's family.  Although she's not suffering any pain, her life is basically walking to and fro from her bed in the bedroom nearest the livingroom to her chair in the livingroom.  We celebrated her 76th birthday on 10-10-10, and I saw relatives that I had not seen since I've come to Japan.  (One of my aunts was shocked to see me drinking beer.  She still pictured me as an under-age teen, I guess!)

Mom is still about the same as she was when I saw her in October, so I guess I could have gone for Christmas, but...  Hindsight is 50/50 they say.  And they are right. 

After returning from seeing Mom, I never got around to blogging again because I had to catch up with my regular everyday vocations!  I'm still not caught up, but wanted to come up for air to let you know that I am still around and hope to be a better blogger in 2011. 

Obama's "Health Care" - One of the Things that Bothers Me

It doesn't seem to be much about health. And the care doesn't sound very impressive, either. (.....thinking of my mom and her cancer.....)

'Death Panels' in Oregon?
Ethel C. Fenig

Perhaps former Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) was referring to the tragic predicament of Barbara Wagner of Oregon when she wrote how she feared for the fate of her Down Syndrome son under "Obama's 'Death Panels.' "

Susan Donaldson James of ABC News reports on the letter Ms. Wagner received from the Oregon Health Plan in response to a $4000 a month drug her doctor prescribed after her lung cancer, long in remission, returned..


the insurance company refused to pay.

What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50.


Hmmmm, let's do the math. Yep, a one time prescription of $50 sure is cheaper than $4000 a month for who knows how many months to keep a 64 year old woman alive. So the Oregon "Death Panel" graciously offered suicide pills. Or doctor assisted murder.


But Ms. Wagner had an understandably different reaction.



"It was horrible," Wagner told ABCNews.com. "I got a letter in the mail that basically said if you want to take the pills, we will help you get that from the doctor and we will stand there and watch you die. But we won't give you the medication to live."


Ah, but Ms. Wagner wanted to live. And she didn't care what the Oregon "Death Panel" - uhm, Oregon Health Plan decided. And her situation is not unique.




But a 1998 study from Georgetown University's Center for Clinical Bioethics found a strong link between cost-cutting pressures on physicians and their willingness to prescribe lethal drugs to patients -- were it legal to do so.

The study warns that there must be "a sobering degree of caution in legalizing [assisted death] in a medical care environment that is characterized by increasing pressure on physicians to control the cost of care."

Cancer drugs can cost anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 a month. The cost of lethal medication, on the other hand, is about $35 to $50.

So Sarah Palin's "death panels" aren't as quite off the mark as those afflicted by Palin Derangement Syndrome and mocking her seem to think. Apparently they're called Centers for Bioethics and people are sincerely grappling with these issues. The issues are deep, the problems are complex. And alas there are no easy answers. But let's keep the Barbara Wagners in mind. For one day, a loved one may be in the same predicament. Or you.

HT
American Thinker

Grandma's Cancer - July Update

Was it back in February I first posted that my mom has cancer? The doctors told her it was stage four lung cancer, that she'd undergo radiation and chemotherapy to help her deal with pain and in perhaps 6-12 months call in hospice.

I have four younger sisters, so to keep track of who's who, I'll use the nicknames my late father used for us when we were growing up. #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5. Original, huh? (I'm #1 for those who don't already know that.)

Back to the update. As soon as #2 and #5 learned of Grandma's condition, they put their heads together to be sure that alternating weeks each of them would be able to take care of Grandma. Every Wednesday she would go for treatment, and then return to either #2's home/family for a week or her own home with #5 keeping daily watch on her reactions to the treatments. #4, along with two of her own four children and the girlfriend of one of those children, drove from one end of the state to the other to spend a week at #5's and spend time with Grandma.

The only thing #1 has been able to do is call weekly and have fun heart-to-heart chats with Grandma. I had been hoping to go in August and spend the month with Grandma (and my daughter Megumi, too, of course!), but unfortunately I will not be able to go afterall.

Sorry, back to the update! When all of this began, in fact, the only reason Grandma learned of the cancer at all, she felt a terrble pain in her left foot. Apparently, the cancer had spread throughout her body and the bones in her foot simply crumbled. They gave her a "boot," and she was able to keep mobile. She was also told that she would have to gain weight before beginning treatments. She tried to, but I'm not certain that she gained much. Anyway, treatments began.

While she lost all of her hair, she never suffered any nausea or pain at all! The chemo did tire her, but usually a day of rest was all she needed to feel like she could get up and do things she normally did. During the past month of phone calls, she kept telling me that her doctor said that the cancer was GONE! At least the cancer that had spread throughout her body. The growth in her lung, which is where they suppose the cancer originated, was half the size it initially was in February. She was given hope that she wouldn't have to return to the doctor for three whole months! False hope, that is.

At this point, she is stopping the radiation and the chemotherapy and is beginning a new treatment. #2 gave me the details (which I still might not be giving you correctly here*): Every three weeks Grandma will go in to receive a B 12 shot in her left arm (question for Grandma/doctor - why left? maybe because the cancer is in the left lung?), a bag of a new drug (question for Grandma/doctor - name of medicine?), and everyday she has to take one dose of folic acid (at the exact same time every day! Don't forget and don't take two!) This will continue for three months. Then the doctors will do more tests to see what's what.

So that's the way things are at the moment. One of the things Grandma said, "The bad thing about getting better is people don't come around and ask you how you're doing so much anymore." I had to laugh, but it added a poignancy to my own inability to get over the ocean to spend the summer with her. I was going to help her and #3 sort through her photos.

But it'll be okay. At least thus far our prayers that she not have to endure the pain have been answered. Thank you, Lord, for that.

*corrections from #2-5 are more than welcome!