daidoji_gisei | First of Five

Yesterday was taken up with my day-trip to Omaha. The occasion was my mom's first annual check-up with her oncologist. Last July, after the end of her radiation treatments (which came after her mastectomy, which came after her chemotherapy) he had pronounced her to be cancer-free. For now. A cancer patient isn't really considered cured until five cancer-free years have passed. And even then, you never know.

My mom and I showed up at ten for the blood draw, and then waited around for the hour and a half until her doctor's appointment. He was a little late, but we didn't fret. As my mom pointed out, what if he was seeing a patient who was really dying? Eventually he showed up and told us the blood tests looked great. He examined her carefully, asked some questions, complemented her manicure, praised her for starting to take walks every day, and said that she appeared to be still cancer free. My mom and I took this news with laudable calm, but as soon as he left the room she got off the examining table and we gave each other a big hug. One year down, four to go.