Val Part IV (living with dying)

 part IV.

Terminal.

 Living with it, the good, and the bad, and the marvelous life of Valerie.

It’s been a long road for her. This cancer of Valerie’s has a 100% mortality rate within 8 years. It is coming up on her 8 year mark this May. We are blessed to have drawn the longest stick possible on this one. 8 whole years to love, enjoy, appreciate, learn, and grow.

We flew back to the states to visit her over the holidays, knowing it could be her last and fearing it would be her last. So home we went.

What is life like for Val at this point, at this stage of the cancer? “How is your mom,” everyone asks. “She’s good!” I say. Because she really IS good. She is happy, she is sure of her future with Him, she is confident in His plan. She is enjoying her children, and grandchildren eating them all up, every last drop, like her favorite peach slump ala mode. She is amazing in every sense of the word.

But what is life REALLY like for her? I mean she has cancer, so she is in a lot of pain. ALL. THE. TIME. she has pain in several places throughout her body. Lately it hurts to swallow. This is a frightening development. As eating is something that one can never live without. She sleeps a lot. somedays ALL DAY. Somedays, only HALF the day. She manages with a pain patch, worn daily on her shoulder, full of Morphine I do believe. It makes life manageable. And so we wait. We don’t know how much time there is left. She has already beat so many odds. And so we are grateful.