Been a grim couple of weeks

[talloola]

I too have been riding a roller coaster, however mine seems to be going off the track...my good friend who I grew up next door to (her parents still live in the same house which is right next door to my Dad's place) is very ill. A few months back she developed a lump in her neck, they did tests...CANCER was the diagnosis. They did the radiation etc. but the lump wouldn't go away so they said we'll just go in and remove it...they opened her up, and promptly closed her back up...I think once the oxygen hit, it fed the problem...they are moving her to a hospice this coming week.
I am sad....but it is her parents that I worry about! She is their only daughter (their favorite one) and I don't know what to do, say or what card to buy..."get well soon" doesn't work.
My Dad is very emotional about the situation....he had a test recently and the old prostate numbers have gone from 0 to 5 sinse the last test.....now they think the hip problem he has could mean bone cancer ...he is scheduled for a bone scan... when he calls to ask about Sissy, I say shes holding her own and change the subject to how are you doing Dad...this is his 3rd bout...damn!

Very sad news indeed, it is so very hard when a parent becomes ill, we do have to lose
them at some point, but when you see that day drawing nearer, it hurts a lot, I hope he
fights his way through this bout, and the news of your friend is very sad.

 

[shadowshiv]

Excellent news indeed, Dexter. She sounds like a very tough fighter.:smile:

 

[shadowshiv]

I too have been riding a roller coaster, however mine seems to be going off the track...my good friend who I grew up next door to (her parents still live in the same house which is right next door to my Dad's place) is very ill. A few months back she developed a lump in her neck, they did tests...CANCER was the diagnosis. They did the radiation etc. but the lump wouldn't go away so they said we'll just go in and remove it...they opened her up, and promptly closed her back up...I think once the oxygen hit, it fed the problem...they are moving her to a hospice this coming week.
I am sad....but it is her parents that I worry about! She is their only daughter (their favorite one) and I don't know what to do, say or what card to buy..."get well soon" doesn't work.
My Dad is very emotional about the situation....he had a test recently and the old prostate numbers have gone from 0 to 5 sinse the last test.....now they think the hip problem he has could mean bone cancer ...he is scheduled for a bone scan... when he calls to ask about Sissy, I say shes holding her own and change the subject to how are you doing Dad...this is his 3rd bout...damn!

I am sorry to hear about your friend and your father, linder.:-( I will send some good vibes their way.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

I too have been riding a roller coaster, however mine seems to be going off the track... ...damn!

Aw man, that really bites. There's really nothing you can say or do I think, except be there for people in their crises, tell 'em you care and they matter to you. As I said somewhere on these boards recently, sometimes there just isn't any comfort to be had, all we can do is endure. When I lost my dad, it was like a great light went out in my life, and even now, 18 years later, there's still hardly a day goes by that I don't think of him and wish I could still talk with him. It doesn't hurt like it used to, but I still miss him badly. That's just the way it is, grief and loss come to us all.

Years ago, reading John Jakes' multi-volume historical novel about the U.S. Civil War, Heaven and Hell, I came across a passage that struck me so strongly I typed it out and printed it, and pinned it to the bulletin board in my study. It's still there, helps me keep my perspective. He wrote this:

"Every day of our lives, we live with stupid mischance and clumsy melodrama, cupidity, greed, unnecessary suffering. We forget it, we mask it, we try to order it with our arts and philosophies, numb ourselves to it with diversions, or with drink. We try to explain and compensate for it with our religions. But it's always there, very close, like some poor deformed beast hiding behind the thinnest of curtains. Once in while the curtain is torn down and we're forced to look.

But life's not logical. Some never see the beast at all. Some see it again and again, and there seems no sense to any of it. But when we look, something happens. What happens is that childhood comes to an end. Parents call it growing up, and they use the phrase much too casually. Growing up is looking at the beast and knowing it's immortal and you are not. It's dealing with that."

I'm sorry to hear about your hardships DL. I wish you well.