On Monday 19 May 2009 I found out that my Mother has Stage II Cancer of the Uterus.  Shocked wouldn’t even begin to explain how I felt at that moment.  It was the words no child wants to hear.  How can someone I love and adore so much be in danger from something as nasty as cancer?

I was at work when I spoke to my Mum.  I think I may have scared the boys with my sudden and unexpected outburst of tears.  I can’t even begin to explain how wonderful the people I work with were.  I left work on Monday having booked my flight to Mount Isa and taken a month off work to be with my family.

Due to Mount Isa being in the “Outback” there are no doctors that could do the required surgery.  My Mum had to travel to Brisbane so we had a family road trip – just like the old days.  We packed up the dogs, our luggage, jumped in the 4wd and hit the highway.

It had it’s moments of hilarity.  The 4wd has a CB radio in it.  It means that you can listen to UHF for a radius of 12km while in the car.  We were driving in the middle of no where and a rather educated sounding voice, “To the left is a body of water.  Would they call that a tank or a dam.  Does anyone know the difference?  If it has livestock does that make it a dam?  How do they make them?”

We all looked at each other and burst out laughing.  I said to the car, “Tell them the little known Australian Beaver made them.”  More laughing and encouraging of me to pick up the CB and tell them that.  I was to embarrassed, so Dad did. “They’re made by beavers.”

We all cracked up.  A voice is heard from the CB, “I beg your pardon.”

Dad picks up the CB again, “Beavers made them.”

Another voice, “I think he said Beavers made them?!?”  Pause.  “Was that you car…”

“I’m afraid we didn’t contribute anything to this conversation.”

We were cracking up as we passed them on the highway, convinced that their conversation around the campfire that evening would focus on who the mystery voice was.

The road trip continued in that vein for the next two days.  As we got closer to Brisbane the news started to come through that Brisbane was having some of the worst storms and flooding it had seen in decades.  For a brief moment we didn’t think we’d make it through.  We ended up spending the night in Chinchilla waiting to see whether the weather would clear.  It cleared and we made it through to Brisbane on Friday.

We spent the weekend doing family things, which was nice.

My Mother and Father meet with the surgeon on Monday.  He seems to be confident that the cancer is localised in the uterus, however it will mean a radical hysterectomy.  Which means the removal of the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus and cervix.  Apparently there’s a mystery “node” outside of the uterus that they believe is a fibroid.  While the surgery happens they’ll run tests on tissues to see whether the cancer has spread and what stage the cancer is.  They’ll also assess whether her lymph nodes need to be removed.  A lot of it rests on what they find when they get in there.

My Mother has been a little disappointed that the procedure won’t be able to be performed via keyhole surgery.  It’s going to mean that she’ll have a week in hospital and will have to fly home.  It’s disappointing, but it’s not anything that they’ve not done before.

I’m so glad that I’m here with my family.  I can’t imagine being at home and trying to keep up-to-date via the mobile.  Tomorrow is going to be slow while we wait for her to get out of surgery and find out the results.  We’re really lucky to be staying at apartments opposite the hospital so that will take some of the pressure off as we won’t have to navigate through the traffic.

Tomorrow is in GOD’s hands and they’re the best hands to be in.

[Image from Kind Over Matter.]