Overwhelmed

I started out this semester behind and have not even begun to catch up. There is too much going on. The worst is that in August, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. She found out almost accidentally - a chance x-ray for something else revealed a 3 cm growth "highly suspicious for malignancy". Six weeks of testing later (yes, six weeks) and we have a diagnosis. It isn't good: Stage IV. One small lesion on a rib means it is metastatic lung cancer. She started chemo a week ago.

Last month, when they thought it was operable, she went through all sorts of testing. Turns out, she is incredibly healthy. Not even any heart disease, which her mother had in abundance. She is in a non-blind clinical trial of a newer chemotherapy agent - one that is already approved for other types of cancers. She's on the new stuff, not the standard therapy. Everyone is optimistic she may have longer than most. Which is great, because the statistics for stage IV lung cancer really, really suck.