Bump in the road.

My wife loved going Christmas shopping by herself.  She spent an evening wrapping presents to send to our daughter and her family.  She kept saying how much fun it was.  The next morning she could hardly drag herself out of bed.  Besides being extremely tired, she also was dizzy as she stood.  Coincidentally her appointment with her cancer specialist was that day.  The doctor said the mastectomy scars were healing nicely, but her blood pressure was 90 over something and a finger prick blood test showed her blood sugar was low.  Neither was good but not alarming.  No treatment was prescribed.

A few days later she went to her general practitioner.  I drove her and she sat in a wheelchair as I pushed her into the doctor’s office.  He noticed her ears were filled with wax which, he said, would cause the dizziness.  He gave her sweet oil to apply to her ear canals.  He concurred with the other doctor that the blood sugar level was borderline abnormal but he didn’t prescribe anything either.  Also, he gave her a stool sample kit.  Just because cancer has disappeared in one part of the body doesn’t mean it can’t re-emerge somewhere else.

Her appetite has been off, which is not good.  She has lost enough weight already.  Other Christmas preparations have been put on hold.  And preparing for Christmas is her favorite activity of the year.  I brought sushi home for dinner tonight.  She ate that better than anything else in the last few days.  And she’s standing more easily now.

A short trip after Christmas has also been put on a back burner.  But we’re not dismissing the plans yet.  She has another week to regain strength and vitality before thinking in terms of cancelling it.

Life is fragile.  Never take it for granted.  But never give up either.