(Personal) A reminder that the good fight can still be won...

[SirFozzie]

In 1998, there was a woman who received horrible news from her doctor. They had found cancer in her lung. They would begin treatments immediately, but it seemed bleak. They told her in similar cases where it was so advanced, the average survival time was six months.

But this woman's a fighter. She lived with her mother for a year, which was right next to the hospital, because the chemotherapy rounds caused her hair to all out and left her so nauseous that she laid on the couch like someone dead, because any movement would cause vomiting.

The woman slowly recovered after this hell on earth. But the cancer was always there.. and the fight continued.

The woman heard even worse news. They had discovered a spot on her skull that may be the cancer metasizing to other parts of the body. This woman had to have surgery to have a quarter sized piece of her skull removed, and a metal plate inserted.

She was lucky. The cancer was on the skull, not in the brain, and had not spread, they thought.. but they would have to do targeted radiation to her head to be sure.

Combined, these after effects meant that she couldn't work again, as it pretty much destroyed her stamina permanently.. basically she had become disabled from a Medicare standpoint. She didn't care. That little bit in her lung was still there, It wasn't big any more. It was small. But it was still there, and efforts to rid her of it would do HER more harm then it would the cancer.

But still she persevered.

So she continued the rounds with her oncologist and her doctors visits, waiting for the moment of that little monster growing again.. but the monster was quiescent. The time frame between visits became longer and longer, as the fact that a permanent status quo had been reached. Cancer hadn't killed her, but she hadn't gotten rid of the cancer.

This woman persevered. She began to speak of asking the docs to be more aggressive with the treatment again. "I've lived with this so long, and I want to say I've won", she said. But the doctors were afraid of upending the situation.

So this woman went in for her once every few months visit with her oncologist ready to argue once again to be more aggressive in going for the knockout blow. The doctor, probably was going to tell her once again, it was too important not to risk the status quo and inflict harm on my mom said "Let's look at the tests before we do anything."

So, later that day, the doctor instead said the words that short circuited every one of that women's arguments, words that she'd been waiting to hear for fourteen years.

"Your body is cancer-free."

That woman is my mother, and she provides an example I wish I could live up to.

[sterlingice]

Great news!

SI

[Scoobz0202]

Beautiful

[Chief Rum]

That's awesome. Congrats to your mother and to you and your family.

[CleBrownsfan]

Foz- that is awesome!!

[DaddyTorgo]

Awesome news - congrats!!!

[flounder]

Great story!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Awesome. Score one for the good guys

[SirFozzie]

Thanks all, yes, we're all very happy, and personally, it gave me a personal boost as I'd been in the hospital Since tuesday for a leg infection, and I was in a not very fun space mentally, and one of those "Crash sleeping and stare at the ceiling" cycles, just because of what I had gone through in the last few days, and when mom told me the good news.. well, comparitively, it made what I was going through small potatoes, right?

Well, she actually gave me words of encouragement, and while I'm not better (I'm in the "He can heal just as well at home and won't take up a needed hospital bed here" stage with a cellulitis infection, so the leg is still extremely swollen and will take some time to drain).. I have a new appreciation of what it takes to be able to giht these issues.

[JediKooter]

Amazing and awesome! Sorry to hear about your leg SF. Do what you got to do to get it better and try not to get too down. I know, easier said than done, but, just take it one thing at a time and if you need to vent or whatever, there's always us here at the good 'ol FOFC.

[BYU 14]

Love to hear stories like this, thank you for sharing Foz and please pass on my admiration to your mother.

[cubboyroy1826]

Awesome news Foz, great to hear.

[spleen1015]

Awesome!

[MizzouRah]

That is great! Thank you for sharing!

[Wolfpack]

Outstanding!

[Marc Vaughan]

Fantastic

[CU Tiger]

Awesome, F*ck Cancer!

Good Job SF's Mom