Meb: So there we were, my granddaughter Addie and I, at the homestead having a delightful time playing in what we call, “the little house”-- a two-year-old-sized house on stilts-- where every child is entranced because they fit right in. There is a porch that is open to the woods about three feet up, and suddenly, I found myself on the ground.
The good news is that I didn’t have bleeding in my head, but the bad news is that my right wrist (yes, I am right-handed), is fractured. The emergency room said I’ll be four to six weeks in a cast/sling, no driving or typing and certainly no flying pig tail carving.
Lisa: I arrived this morning to take Meb to her first radiation treatment, and there she was with her arm in a sling! Oh dear! So, now I am the typist.
Meb: I thought I was done with chemo on March 27th. Then in May I had the mastectomy. My hair came back--short, lush and (surprise!) curly. My finger skin was re-growing, I even tried playing the violin and it worked! My finger nails were growing back strong, my head was clearing again… and then!
In July, I was told that I needed six more months of oral chemo and two months of radiation!!! What, I’m not done? It was explained to me then that because I’m what is called “triple negative”, (you can look it up, but essentially the highest rate of recurrence), other treatments including hormones, were not effective on my cancer.
Lisa: I arrived at the shop to work and Meb told me this news, saying she was shocked to hear the adjective “deadly” used in describing this type of cancer.
“I guess I have been rather la-la about it” she said.
Well, I don’t think that she has been “la-la” about it at all, but rather has had an amazingly “keep calm and carry on” spirit in the face of it, and that I think that it has been precisely this in her very positive character that has helped her get through it so well, and I told her so. Also, always her sense of humor is at the ready and we have enjoyed laughing together often and recently over her special new “swimming boob”.
Today on the radiation table, when the radiologist was tagging her for the new tattoos to mark the specific radiation parameters, Meb said to him, “Ah, a new tat for tit!”… it took him a second or two, and then he and all of us burst out in real laughter together… and it felt good to hear it in that room. It was a human healing moment.
Meb: I don’t know where I am right now with this new set-back. I’m very frustrated, a bit depressed and just a little angry at myself. We just returned from our lovely intense Nantucket show with depleted stock, and Chatham in about two weeks, and I’m in a cast! Hopefully I will find out tomorrow for how long.
Update: The cast comes off on August 29th! I'm driving myself to radiation every day. Almost ready for Chatham, and it really is raining every day...
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