virtual wishes (updated)

I’m not usually one to ask for help, even when I might need it. But today there’s a need for some virtual support, not for me but my mom.

As I’ve said before, my mom recently discovered she is facing a life-threatening illness. This morning, she will undergo surgery at a world class institution in the Lonestar State, miles from home. She didn’t want anyone but her husband there with her for the multi-hour procedure. So I’m sending her my own wishes for a safe and healthy recovery from afar.

Thanks in part to our recent family celebration, my mom has been in decent spirits lately. Yet even with her typical sense of humor (dark) in tact, she is tired, weak, afraid, vulnerable. I have never known my mother to be any of these things.

My mom and I had quite a contentious relationship when I was younger, but we have become closer over time. Notwithstanding her nature to be, well, who she is, she is still one of my greatest fans, even though we don’t always agree. (No, she doesn’t know about this blog.) Her support has brought me to tears on more than one occasion (and here).

Now, facing her own mortality just as her only daughter and youngest child (finally) becomes a mother herself has left her a with veritable mix of emotions. Me too.

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On another note, my recently married niece just learned that her father in law is suffering from a very aggressive type of brain cancer, and is being evaluated at the same facility. Her whole family could use some love about now too.

Thanks all.

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Update: Many thanks for everyone’s kind words, good thoughts and prayers. My mom came out of her initial surgery OK, but unfortunately she will have to go under the knife again as the tumor in her liver could not be removed this morning. I am grateful to the skilled staff at her hospital who made the wise judgment to stop the procedure when they did, or the outcome could have been much, much worse. She is recovering now, and her doctors are evaluating next steps.

Many thanks again.  Your support really helped today.

~ by luna on August 19, 2009.