I’ve obviously been a bit tied up for the past couple months as my mother deals with pancreatic cancer. I just sent an email off to a friend (we call him the Egg Man) and he had asked how she was doing. I sent the following…and realized just what an inspiration this woman is. I almost wish she was a famous woman so that she’d be more in the limelight and people all over the world could see what an inspiration she is as she continues on with life. I couldn’t be prouder to have her as my mother.
A nearly identical post appears at MyMomIsMyBestFriend.com but this story of inspiration is just too fitting a post for Wax Porhetoric. I will try to post more stories of inspiration, love, life, passions as it all relates to this as I get the time. For now, we have this.
email excerpt
I haven’t talked to Ma Chia yet today. She got nailed yesterday by the pain. It snuck up on her and grabbed her quick. She had already taken the morphine two hours earlier so we couldn’t give her anymore. Luckily we were able to give her an anti-anxiety drug that helped her focus on getting rid of it and then she did. And then in true Ma Chia fashion she was was like “There! Got that little fucker” (she calls the cancer “Ibu-monster”…she was taking soooo much ibuprofin early on before she got diagnosed). Then the rest of the night she’d be laughing and joking and being herself (aside from a couple times she’d just kind of nod off).
Seeing how she is going through this is really making me love and respect her even more. I mean, some people would just give up. Others would bitch about the pain. Some would just bitch all day every day about it. Not her though. She’s just dealing with the pain when it hits, gets rid of it with the help of the meds and a great attitude, and then she’s carrying on with her day and enjoying our company. It really is an inspiration to see and it just makes me want to be there for absolutely anything she needs (even though she sure as hell wouldn’t let me do anything *smirk*). Hell, in true Ma Chia fashion, she made sure I was doing ok and gave me an apple (“have you been eating enough apples lately?” she asks) as I was walking out the door.
So yeah, she’s doing well. The pain sneaks up every now and then but she treats it as a “damn, here’s the pain” and then carries on when it’s gone.
Let this be an inspiration to us all. No matter what challenges we are faced with, we have a choice in how we can deal with it. We can do it with dignity or not, we can enjoy life or we can complain about it. Rock on Mom, rock on.
