26 November 2014

My Best Girlfriend

I have far too many friends with cancer. Far too many friends with stage IV cancers in particular.

This is about my best girlfriend. I found out some information today, that made me very upset. I found out that my dear friend is in the hospital, and that she has been placed on hospice. I decided to share a little bit of her and our story.


It was over 20 years when we met. We met over FidoNet. Both of us were software nerds, allowing our male halves to take a lot of credit, but we were fast friends. 
My children grew up knowing her as more than a friend, more like an aunt. Most like a sister to me.
We drifted apart due to life and husband drama, but found each other again on Facebook, like most of my friends, a few years ago.

I hadn't heard from her for over a year, but that wasn't unusual. Then one day this year I got a call. 
On that May afternoon, she informed me that she had been diagnosed with Stage IV renal cell 
carcinoma a few months prior. She also informed me that her father had been diagnosed with cancer and had died very quickly. Her mother was caring for her. 

During the surgeries that she underwent, she sustained both a heart attack and a stroke. 
The stroke caused her to loose her sight completely.
My best friend had not texted, or called or written on Facebook, because she was completely blind.

That weekend we attended her father's memorial service and held her hand as she went out into a large group of family and friends for the first time. Many of which had no idea she had completely lost her sight.

Shocked at her appearance, I hugged and helped her any way she would let me. But everything I did, felt like too little. 

She began the recommended courses of chemo in the summer, having a violent allergic reaction to the first one they tried.
In September they started another type of chemotherapy. This past one has resulted in her being admitted with the hospital, having lost another 15 pounds and experiencing a severe abdominal infection. 

She has decided to stop the chemo. Apparently she has been told that it will take approximately 3 weeks to get out of her system. Her family has been informed of her decision. 

Today when I first spoke to her daughter, I was told she was given only a few days to live. 
But I called Melanie today, and she is talking and sounding in good spirits. 

At this time she has no one providing her with any alternative treatments. I am doing my best to figure out a way or a method to get to Yelm to help her. If it is meant to happen, it will. Please keep Melanie and her mother and daughter in your prayers.



https://www.facebook.com/maggie.wawrinofsky?and=melonie.leonard