Just over two months ago, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer.
She had been receiving treatment for neurological symptoms, which had
not been responding as well to treatment as her specialist had
expected. He suspected that there might be complicating factors, and
ordered tests that eventually revealed the presence of a cancerous
mass in Mom's left lung. His conscientiousness led to an early stage
detection, a glimmer of luck in a statistically grim landscape.

Mom had been a smoker for most of her adult life, and had succeeded in
quitting about two years ago. It seems likely, in the complicated
world of contributing factors, genetic predisposition, precursors, and
chance, that this factor played a significant role.

Mom is currently receiving excellent medical care at the Montreal
Jewish General Hospital. She has completed three (of five initially
prescribed) cycles of chemotherapy. Each cycle involves a hospital
visit for the first dose, followed by five days of medication taken
orally, at home. There is then a followup visit to the hospital,
generally involving more tests to gauge the progress of the treatment.
In addition to the chemo drugs, she is taking a variety of medications
to help with the side effects of the chemo drugs. The main discomfort
my mother will admit to (she's incredibly stoic) is difficulty
sleeping, though paradoxically, the drugs leave her very weak.
Previously simple chores such as walking the half-block to the corner
to buy a bag of groceries leave her exhausted. Mom being Mom, though,
she has been pretty steadfast in sticking to her daily routines -
going for a walk, buying groceries, cooking.

This week she is starting radiation treatment, which consists of
a twenty minute session five times a week, for three weeks. Likely
Dad will drive her to the hospital each day, which worries me just a
bit. Dad's passion is restoring old Mercedes cars, which means that
at any moment none of his cars are exactly safe and reliably by
any modern standards. Hopefully the treatment will be completed
within a few weeks, before the weather turns bad.

The last round of tests, including a CT scan and MRIs, seemed to
indicate that the cancer is confined to a single site in
the lung. We were all very relieved at this, since it greatly
improves Mom's chances of surviving a few more years.

I've been to visit twice since getting the initial diagnosis. It's
really hard to see Mom looking frail and weak - I think of her as very
active and vibrant. She's lost most of her hair and is sporting a
variety of headscarves; she's also lost much of her sense of smell,
and appetite.

It's also hard to live so far away under these circumstances - the
visits felt pretty short and I didn't manage to pitch in and help with
all of the projects I'd hope to. One of my sisters is living in
Germany, but has mananged quite a few visits, even so.

On the whole, it looks like Mom and Dad are really doing fine - it's
been cool watching Dad take up cooking and prepare meals. He even
made a batch of two or three gallons of Kimchee.

Hang in there, Mom - you're a trooper.