Chemo

I've been waiting to post this for a few reasons. First, I was trying to let everything sink in and trying to get settled back in Florida. And then when I got ready to post I didn't want to make it seem I was just posting because of what was happening to Candi's mom (I hate it to seem like I try to steal people's spot light, even if that wouldn't have been the case).

Anyways, here goes:

My mom and I were driving back to OKC from Iowa (we had to go up to help my grandparents clean up because of a water pipe that burst in their house while they were away) and my dad called.

Quick detour to make the story make sense: My stepmom had to have a lump removed from her breast the day after I arrived in Texas. This is the third one they've found so far (starting back when I was in high school), the first one was cancerous the other one wasn't. This lump has grown quicker than the other two did, it grew at an alarming rate and it might have EXPLODED (my mom's words not mine) if they hadn't removed it. Anyways they did the testing on the lump which catches us up to my story.

Well, my dad calls to tell me the test has come back on my mom's (stepmom but her and my dad have been married FOREVER she's been part of my life since I was nine and once upon a time she was more of a mom than my biological mom was) lumpectomy and it's cancerous...

All he tells me is that they're going to have to do three weeks of radiation and that was that. I never asked when they were starting, what happens if it doesn't work, NOTHING...I was in a state of shock.

Well, he called me a few days ago to see if I had made it home and I found the courage to ask the questions I couldn't ask before. This is what I found out:

• She has already started radiation
• When she finishes the radiation they will do more tests to see if it cleared up the hot spots around where the lump was
• If the radiation doesn't work she'll have to go through chemotherapy

CHEMOTHERAPY!?!?! By then I was choking back the tears, I didn't want my dad to hear me cry. When the first lump turned up cancerous she had to go through the radiation and that was all it took. But even the mention of chemotherapy scares the s*** out of me. I know that it's a little too early to tell if she'll have to go that far, but something about this feels different. The fact that the lump grew SO QUICKLY makes me think that it's not going to be as easy this time around. But then again I may be wrong.

I hope to God I'm wrong...