Endangered Boobies Month

In honor of the Endangered Boobies Month (not to be confused with the month honoring extinct boobies), I'm going to talk about my MIL.

In October 2006, during a routine checkup, it was discovered that MIL had a small spot on her breast. It was biopsied and found to be cancer. Luckily, though, it was Stage 0. Now you're probably thinking, how is there a Stage 0 in cancer? Well it was so minute and so contained that they caught it in its earliest stage. I think it was just a few cells (few can be a couple hundred, mind you) that began clumping. The doctors told her that it was so early that she never would have found it during a self-exam.

At the end of November, she had the mass removed. In December, she began radiation treatments. By February, the skin around her breast, underarm, and the bottom of her arm were red and raw - like a really bad sunburn - and she was constantly applying cream to keep it manageable and somewhat bearable. During all this treatment, her dad was struggling to stay alive and eventually passed on February 15th. I don't know if she ever told him that she wasn't well. By mid-March, she completed the radiation treatment. By the end of April, she found out her first grandchild would be born in December, and her fear of the cancer was multiplied by a million. Every six months since, she has gone through rigorous testing to ensure that the cancer is still gone. She just finished another round of testing (bloodwork, MRI, ultrasound, etc.) and feels even better about being healthy again. She said to me that with each round of tests, she begins to feel better about the results, and instead of it being a burden, it's becoming a reassurance. I asked how long would she have to do the twice-yearly testing, and she said that she has a friend who was just cleared of her twice-yearly testing after 12 years of being cancer-free. It becomes a long, arduous part of your life...but better safe than sorry.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone else in my life that has dealt with this. She has no idea if it runs in her family because her mother was adopted. Her mother died of cancer but not of the breast. I believe it was stomach.

Because of her experience, she hates Breast Cancer Awareness month and all things pink. I don't know if it has something to do with being diagnosed during that month and then every time you turn around you're reminded of it with all the pink crap everyone makes or what, but this just isn't her favorite month anymore. Anyway, she's an artist and has decided to paint a piece that will be donated to a cancer wing at a hospital near where they live (I believe its the hospital she had all her care at). When they went to Europe in May, she took lots of picture of the neat door knobs in London. The title of her piece..."Knockers."

She is one creative lady, and though I may bitch about her, I do love her dearly.

And I'm grateful to God that she's well.