Coin Toss

09/13/2015

The beginning of every football game starts with a coin toss.  The referee asks the captains of each side to pick heads or tails. Which ever team wins the coin toss gets to choose whether to kick or receive the ball.

Last Tuesday Mother and I went to the surgeon to see is the large growth removed from her face was cancer or not. Cancer is the kind of word that sends fear through your whole body and brings all sorts of haunting images to mind. Mother and I discussed the possibility that if it was cancer was she going to agree to treatment. She told me that if she had to do radiation treatment she would. She also said that if chemotherapy was involved she did not think that her body was strong enough to survive. OK, we had our minds set on the problems and headed out. Here is where the coin toss comes in. On one side of the coin is cancer. On the other side of the coin is treatment. Our coin landed on cancer. The one word that you don't want to hear.

As you process the word your mind accelerates forward to the next logical step. Treatment. In my daily meditation and devotional readings in "The Upper Room"® last Friday the reading spoke of a person who was not happy with the current situation and went "kicking and screaming". No matter how they choose to handle the situation they were on the journey irregardless. Well, that was Mother. When the Dr. informed us that all the disease had been cut out and there was no follow up treatment we could only look at each other in amazement. No follow up treatment. That did not sound logical but we would hold on to those 4 words like a life line. Mother had "squamous cell carcinoma". Apparently that is one of the worse kind of skin cancer you can have but if caught in time quite easy to remove. Because it deals with the third layer of skin the surgeon did have to go deeper but the results are amazing. She will have a scar but it hardly will be noticeable. We gave a huge sigh of relief on the way home.

Alzheimer permeates every person who lives in his house. As a collective body we all are immersed in the struggle to live every day to it's fullest. That being said. We also have our individual battles to fight on our own. Mother still had to care for JW irregardless. She could have gone kicking and screaming or let it go. She chose to let it go. James has life long problems to deal with from an automobile accident 20 years ago. I have severe rheumatoid arthritis. However, we still work as one to care for one person who has alzheimer's. I promised that I would do all I could to keep my parents in a familiar environment where they can be safe and cared for. I will strive to keep my promise.

Alzheimer may live here but he does not own it.  We do.

Peace, Phyllis