On Tuesday, December 22nd, my daughters and I made cookies and memories at my Aunt Mary's house! Her house is always alive with people and activity. It is a warm and inviting place and I have loved spending time with her and my cousins for as long as I can remember. Last Christmas was a different story. My Aunt was dying. We all knew it and it was hard to come to grips with. She had been diagnosed with a tumor in her left arm. For months she felt something was wrong. She complained of pain and numbness in her fingers of her left hand. She, is not and never was a complainer. She didn't have time for negativity and complaints. She raised five children by herself and one of them was inflicted with polio. So you see, she had to be strong and positive all her life.
She had some testing done on her left arm and nothing was found. It took months before that tumor made itself known and by then it was bad. She had been advised at one point to have her arm removed. This was frightening because it was a major surgery and she was an 80 year old woman. But the tumor continued to grow and cause her pain and suffering. Her arm became an entity unto itself. The left arm and hand became swollen and discolored. It made her whole body sick. She wasn't her happy self. She was in constant pain. She loved to dress up and go out to dinner and on the town. But, her arm made things difficult for her like traveling in the car. Her family took her to Chicago, for a second opinion. It is there, that they were told the truth about the beast that had taken over her arm and her life. The tumor had invaded the bone in her left arm. The arm had to come off.
She was expecting her first great grand baby in April of that year, as this is now January. She made the courageous decision to have her arm removed at the age of almost 81.
Today, she is her happy self again. The cancerous poison that inflicted her arm and her body and her life had been removed. She had to learn how to do many things with only one arm. She insisted on doing things by herself, as much as she could, she did not want to be babied or coddled. She can put on her own clothes and care for herself independently. She can even do things she enjoys like gardening some and baking. ( with only a small amount of assistance) She is back! She is a treasure to me and my family and mostly, she gets to enjoy her family and her life again!
Many people we love are suffering because of cancer. They have altered their bodies to remove that poison that is in them. By having mastectomies, colostomies, limbs amputated. These brave people that fight for life, they are heroes and jedi warriors and they are setting examples for all of us!
