When my mom was treated for breast cancer the first time, they told her that if it didn’t return in five years, it would basically have gone into remission, and she’d be home free.
Then she fell down and almost died.
Then she got up and was living independently.
Then she was diagnosed with the return of breast cancer again just about the time I was diagnosed with my Acoustic Neuroma. I believe at that time, it was more than five years since her initial diagnosis…my sisters will have to fact check me on that…
My surgery to remove a benign vestibular schwannoma was on February 10, 2010.
Her surgery to remove her breast cancer was the following May 4. These are the two dates in 2010 I will never forget.
She almost died twice while I was there alone with her in her hospital room as she recovered from surgery. I’ve never prayed so hard in my whole life for her to not die on my watch. 21 days after her surgery, we unhooked the respirator that she said she never wanted and let her spirit quietly leave her body.
I believe my mom made a deal with God and traded her life for mine. She was not a super spiritual person, but I just knew it anyway, and there are times I feel super guilty about that. I try to keep her spirit alive in my kids, in my home. I’ve given up trying to keep it alive in my garden..I was never as good as she was with plants and dirt. I think she would have been proud of the stuff I have accomplished since May of 2010. She appears in just about everything I have written and produced since then.
It’s been 9 years since Norman the neuroma was removed..the surgeon left a sliver at my request, so that my facial nerve would not be damaged. I don’t know if there are statistics about Acoustic Neuroma regrowth like there is about cancer. In my head, (see how I did that?) I made up a ten year statistic. My next MRI isn’t until 2021.
But so far, it’s been 9 years.
Almost there.