A bad week

It's not been a good time lately for my breast cancer support group. There is one funeral this week (unexpected) and another on the way.

Yesterday we received word that one member, Elsie, died. She had taken ill last week and was in the hospital, started to feel better over the weekend, but then took a turn for the worse. They did exploratory surgery, but she didn't survive the operation. That's about all the details I know of what happened. She was 78. Her sister is a member of our group as well. They were diagnosed within two weeks of each other a couple years ago, if I remember correctly. They both always made the meetings fun. She'll be missed. Her funeral is tomorrow, and I know some of the group will be going. I might try to go, but we might be busy at work, too. There's visitation during my lunch hour, so I might at least go to that.

Last week, we received bad news as well. Another of our members has decided to enter Hospice care. She's been fighting for about two years, originally diagnosed about the same time I was. At first, after her chemo and surgery, things seemed to be going well, but then tumors started appearing in her skin. She went to the MD Anderson cancer center in Texas for about six weeks last summer, tried some experimental drug, new drugs, etc. She's been in a lot of pain, I know, but remained pretty upbeat through a lot of it -- at least in her e-mails and when she was able to come to our meetings. But a few months ago, she wrote an e-mail that wasn't as upbeat, and talked about how her two girls (12 and 5) were starting to come to the realization she might not be around to see them grow up. It wasn't a good sign. And then came last week's news. Her tumors had spread to other organs and were just progressing faster than treatment could handle. She just turned 40. She's fought this pretty hard, and I thought if anyone could beat some long odds, she would be one who could. It just doesn't seem fair.

I work with her sister-in-law. They're pretty close, and I kind of put off talking to her after the news. But Monday morning, I had to ask her about something work-related, so of course it came up. It was difficult for both of us, and we only made it a few minutes before we had to quit -- after all, the day was just beginning. I'm sure we'll talk about it again. Maybe later in the day, though.