our fight with cancer...part two

She looked as if she was ready to blast off for the moon. There were tubes sticking in and out of her arms and her nose.

When the doctors came in, she was groggy and feeling no pain.. They were all smiles. We have some very good news. "We were able to reconnect the colon so you will not have to wear a bag."

I wasn't sure if she understood but she smiled and asked them about the cancer. She fell back to sleep before either one could answer.

One of them said to me, "We are not sure how far the cancer has progressed. We are hoping it was confined to the lymph nodes just outside the colon and we removed those."

I could only nod and say, "Thank you."

They left. My wife slept. I worried. I was thankful about the bag. I had no idea how one of those things worked. I pictured a long trash bag strapped to her leg and always full of her waste.  I shuddered at the thought and breathed a sigh of relief.

I didn't know how bad colon cancer can be. I was sure that they had got it all.  A little in the nodes but they said they had removed those.

The next week was recovery week. Not a complete recovery but enough to ditch the hospital. The cancer treatment was yet to come.

They wanted her to walk so she pushed the IV cart or pulled it and walked the halls of her ward with the plastic tube hanging out of nose. I teased her by calling her "Elephant Girl".  One time I took a tape of "Elephant Walk" and played it  while she did her thing. She laughed. The nurses thought we were crazy.

Of all the treatments she went through, even the radiation which almost killed her, she stills says that the plastic tube they shoved up her nose was the worst.

I tell her that I liked her as "Elephant Girl"

The results of the cancer test came back.

Stage 3...She smiled..."I'm lucky. It could have been Stage 4"

She knew what was coming.  I had no idea.

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