What did she do to deserve this?

   Right now I should bring you up to speed with recent events. You know my mom needed to undergo chemo. My grandmother was in town to help out during this period. My mom was to have 8 weeks of chemo and go to Houston to check the progress.


   During the last week of August, we all noticed she was really tired and not very hungry. On August 27th, my grandma and I were heading to an outlet store and I asked my mom if she wanted to come with. She didn’t want to because she was tired. Grandma actually convinced her to come with and we would all eat lunch at the Cracker Barrel.

   After we ordered in the restaurant, I used the restroom. I came back and saw my mom walking towards the bathroom. She told me she just threw up. She threw up a lot. My grandma and I both figured the chemo was starting to kick in. Mom said she still wanted to eat. So we ate. Well, for about 15 minutes. She threw up again. We decided to leave. I asked my grandma later on and she told me she tipped them well. I think they deserved it. We got mom home and she did not throw up anymore and slept the whole rest of the day.

   The next Tuesday Dad took Mom for her chemo treatment. She gets two. One is a pill form and the other is an injection through a port that was surgically placed into her head. This day she got the injection. My Dad tried to impart to these doctors that Mom was not acting right. They ignored him, flat out. On Friday, she had another injection. He told them again that things were not right but this time insisted on getting a social worker to help with her care. This time the doctor decided to check her blood work. Later that day, the doctor called and said they caught an infection in her spinal fluid. Mom needed to come to the hospital for treatment right away.

   You guys, so much has happened since then and my mom is still in the hospital. She has been there for 31 days and counting. Long story short, the admitting oncologist told us she had pneumonia. She didn’t; she had a staph infection in the port in her head. The infectious disease doctor diagnosed her and never said pneumonia. She also had a seizure on a day I visited. I was about to leave and then she had one in the bathroom. Although the neurosurgeon said they couldn’t determine what it was, I know that was a seizure.

   Keep in mind, my mom has had brain tumors since 2000. But this year, the illness took a nosedive into a pile of chemo-induced vomit. And what is most likely in her future is either being in a nursing facility or having a sitter at home every day. How would you like to be 53 years old and have a lady check on you when you take a shower so she could run to your husband to squeal that you couldn’t distinguish the shampoo from the conditioner? I would hate it every day.


I think I understand better than most people what the term “A fate worse than death” truly means.