Life and its surprises ...

life sometimes gives us such unexpected surprises that it makes us wonder what we have done to deserve this? Whether it's good or bad, it usually gets us to ask ourselves that question.

In my case one of those surprises was not good at all. It turns out that after giving the hair donation to that little girl in my previous post I told them I found out that the pain that my mother had to which I referred in it was because I had a malignant tumor ...

That little big surprise that life gave me on January 11, 2017, a year ago, at that moment when I discovered that my mother had cancer, I felt that the world was going to come on top of me, thousands of things went through my head . (none of them was good to be honest) I thought my mother would die, how could I tell my younger brothers the news, how would we do it with that disease if in the country where I live the medicines are not available, as we would to bring them From abroad, how would we cover that strict diet if everything is so expensive? The world turned upside down I could not do anything, I remember when I received the news that I was in college and the only thing I could do was go to the place alone, sit down and cry as if that changed something of what was happening...

In order to corroborate this diagnosis they had to do a biopsy and to be able to do it to my mother they had to put it in the operating room, when I arrived at the clinic they had already put it and my dad was sitting in the waiting room with a worried face I had never seen him, he, who tried to stay strong to give us strength at that moment was totally collapsed, seeing dad like that made me a thousand times worse. I remember that the operation lasted about 4 hours (the longest of my life), at the end of the operation came the doctor of the operating room and gave us a horrible news, they expected to open and take a sample of the tumor but it turns out that when they opened they were I was totally surprised to see that my mom was mined, they did not have a single one to show her in fact they had to choose, she told us that my mom possibly had a lymphoma and as the days passed we confirmed this information with the results of the biopsy, The same day he told us that they would have to do chemotherapy, where we had to go to look for medicines and all the necessary information to be able to start the treatment.

On February 14, I start my mother's chemotherapy cycle

after that race against time to get the medicines, we managed to get them, all at a super high cost but for the day we needed them

in this session, my mom got depressed, for thanking all of us who were accompanying her, and she only stated that she was very sleepy.

When we returned home I had to enter the reality that now I would have to assume almost all their roles, make food, clean, be aware of their medicines, my brothers, everything, and that was where I understood that Mom was taking a rhythm of life too hectic, and that somehow led her to be in the state in which she was.

6 cycles of chemotherapy had to support mom, and in the third we got another big surprise but this time it was a very good, it turns out that "by magic" the tumor of Mom who media 15cm and average 0.7 mm ie was virtually eliminated , with this everyone was really surprised from the person who did the tomography to the doctor who gave us the news as it is something that usually does not happen is too strange to happen.

Dr. Helen Henning, the hematologist who treated my mother was like a blessing to all of us, we have no complaints to make about her, if they asked me for a reference about an oncologist here in Venezuela I would recommend her to her with closed eyes

Mom lost her hair in the third cycle and it was something quite traumatic for her because she took enough care of her hair and losing it made her depressed, however destiny began to conspire in our favor and my dad had the possibility to buy her a wig where the renowned Ivo Contreras (the hairdresser of the mises) and his treatment was wonderful, he is too beautiful a person, in fact he has a foundation where they donate wigs to children with cancer, they are in charge of making tailored wigs for those girls at no cost.

There is something I could notice at that time about the changes that medicines cause in people with cancer, such as losing their appetite and even the desire to drink water, they are very temperamental, they get too weak, they start to get spots in the body, dark circles, have insomnia, some lose weight and in the case of my mom swelled a lot as you can see in the photos.

the only cycles that hit him very hard were the fifth and the sixth, which gave him vomiting, diarrhea, a horrible decompensation that we even had to inject a medication that could only be put on his legs. tired of all this when I was about to finish the treatment mom did not want to go to the clinic anymore did not want to pack (had to stay two days every 21 days to get the treatment), I did not want to eat almost, I did not want to take her medicines, but she tells us that whenever she saw us in despair to see her, she tried to draw strength from where she did not have to do her part and do all those things.

When my mother finished the cycle of chemotherapy, I think we all had the greatest sense of relief we have had so far, we had her back home, healthy and although a little tired with a smile that I hardly saw I was filled with happiness. Then he had to perform radiotherapy sessions, they hit him a bit but we already had the relief that it was only to finish burning any cells that could have remained in his body.

Yes, I can say that my mom is a cancer survivor, and that I am infinitely grateful for life for that.