It's become "chronic"

The readers of this blog have been spoiled over the years with Mom writing messages on a regular basis and keeping us on the edge of our seats while on this roller coaster ride of a life she is living. We've had times when "the blog" was the first thing we read in the mornings or the last thing we checked before going to bed. Often times I learned about what was happening with my parents from a person who had just read the blog and then ran into me at the grocery store or at a sporting event. I always laughed when someone would give me a thumbs up and say, "Great news today!" I would return their thumbs up and then call Mom to see what she wrote. The blog was a huge part of our everyday life.

As of late, the blog entries are showing up less frequently and seem to have less depth. They have become more of a chore than a desire to write. Mom may not say that but we know it is true. I am writing this entry to remind our loyal readers that cancer has not gone away. Cancer has not stopped interfering with our daily lives. It continues to make its presence known when we see Mom dragging her oxygen tubing around the house or when she has a coughing spell that last only a minute but wipes her out for an hour. Cancer exists but we are becoming experts at ignoring it and living through it.

Mom will be joining me, along with her friend Janeen, at the Seattle Storm playoff game tomorrow night against Phoenix. She has been to quite a few games with me now and we have established a pretty good routine. We take breaks when we need them. We slow our pace to a point where we are not busy hurrying from place to place or thing to thing. Instead, we tell stories. We laugh. We get excited to show our team spirit. We have learned to live with cancer as a chronic illness, rather than a death sentence. That is a line that my Mom wrote in a speech that she gave for the American Cancer Society several years ago. She said, "I look forward to the day when we can treat cancer like a chronic illness rather than a death sentence." I think we are there...

I want to remind our family supporters that life after Dad's death has taken it's toll on our family. Not only on an emotional level but also on a physical level. We had been racing around, going from treatment option to treatment option, never stopping long enough to really deal with the severity of the disease. Now that the storm has passed, we are sitting in a quiet world wondering how it all happened so fast. I know that is true of my Mom as well as us kids. We miss my Dad. We miss his laugh. We miss him giving us a hard time. But I know that doesn't begin to touch on the "miss" that my mom is experiencing.

Thank you friends for your patience while the blog produces entries that are few and far between. Just know that the Schmitt family is still here, still fighting this battle and making memories along the way.

With much love,
Angie