Yesterday I met two friends at Target at 2pm. Our mission for the day was to create a basket for our friend who was recently diagnosed with stage-four throat cancer. We tried to find light hearted things and orange things. Things that might be comforting in the hospital. We bought two detective novels, a book called "Eat, Pray, Love", orange and black striped furry socks, a tiger striped Magna sketch board, 27 Dresses on DVD, Friday Night Lights on DVD, Mentos, a set of candles, a soft Halloween afghan, lotion, and one Halloween takeout box of shortbread cookies. I made the cookies in the morning. Shortbread with butterfly stamps.
After all of that shopping the three of us were pretty tired so we went to see the year's worst movie, "The Women". As I was watching it I kept thinking, "Boy this is a really long movie". Always a bad sign. A chick flick that was not funny. Yawn.
We found a basket at Micheal's and made it up on the tailgate. Covered it in a giant basket bag and a bow. Then we debated about the best way to get it to her. None of us wanted bother her and we didn't really know how she was doing. I was voting for "Ding Dong Ditch" for a while. Since none of us is 10 years old that was out of the question so we all straightened out our backbones and drove up the hill. It turns out she was out so we ditched the basket with her son and fled.
It was now 7pm so we all went to dinner. As we were eating our friend called and came down to join us. She loved the basket. She starts Chemo and radiation on Tuesday in NYC. She has one son still at home. He is in between Inga and Erik's age. She never smoked. Her cancer is most likely the result of the HPV virus. She never suspected and didn't go to the doctor for about eight months after symptoms appeared, partly because she doesn't like her primary care doctor. (Does anyone? Not around here!) Her treatment has already started with the insertion of a feeding tube. She has trouble swallowing and breathing. It is going to be a long six months. My heart bleeds for her.
This has not been a good year for us in terms of friends and family members being diagnosed with cancer. Maybe it is our age.
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2 comments:
I read your post after getting back from Costco where I filled the start of year 2 of tamoxifen. I took it as a strong reminder to put friends and family before chores. Lara and I spent the next couple of hours reading in the hammock and painting on the deck.
Now for bedtime stories and a glass fo wine. Feeling lucky for what I have. Cheers.
Wholeheartedly I agree.
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