Turbo Cancer: Day 110 - September 29, 2022
Release
On this day, last year, my mom wrote:
Had Sacrament of Sick yesterday. Father Kris from Infant Jesus of Prague came. How Kind! George, Faye and Kristi came. It was a beautiful experience.
Old-Faithful blew up yesterday. I pushed on Lumpy for about 15 minutes - geysers - lumpy smaller and less painful. So crazy!
Kristi better. Will call Nancy for travel arrangements.
Chemo today.
My mom was right. The thing, Lumpy, that was in her groin, was so crazy!
It was sudden. It was unexpected. It was weird. It was rare. It was novel. It was unknown. It was inexplicable.
It was bizarre.
We had been told that, within days, the whole thing would dry up and sort itself out, but it never did. Instead, it had been months of inflammation, pressure, pain, and fluid.
On this day, my mom discovered something new about Lumpy.
The day before, The Blowhole had stopped draining. At first, this seemed like good news. However, within hours, fluid filled my mom’s thigh. With no hole through which the fluid could escape, it backed up. The increase in retained fluid caused an increase in pressure.
The increase in pressure caused an increase in pain.
In desperation, my mom started pressing on the lump. She massaged around it, pushed in on the sides, and pushed down from the top. After about fifteen minutes, the blowhole erupted! Lymphatic fluid sprayed onto the ceiling and dripped onto the floor.
Once the fluid had escaped, the size, pressure and pain of the lump were reduced.
It was another miracle. After all that time, my mom, suddenly, had something that she could do to help herself feel better. She was granted a small bit of control over her pain.
When I got to her house, she was very excited to show me the new trick. She said, triumphantly: “Watch this! I can milk lumpy now!” That is exactly what she did. As she gently pushed, squeezed and massaged the lump, bucketloads of fluid were expressed through the hole.
I laughed so hard that tears were streaming down my cheeks.
Her body was producing and releasing an incredible amount of fluid. Every hour, she milked the lump, and then, by the next hour, it was inflamed and painful, once again.
If her lymphatic fluid had been worth money, we would have been rich.
We realized that the drain hole had been a blessing all along. If there hadn’t, inadvertently, been a drain put in, all those months ago, where would all of that excess fluid have gone? Would it have travelled to her heart much sooner than it had? Would it have flooded her lungs? Would my mom have still been alive on this day?
So crazy!
We were suddenly grateful for the hole. We didn’t want it to close up. The blowhole was the source of release and relief. Out of the blue, The Blowhole became a friend.
Milking Lumpy became a part of the daily routine. Every time my mom used the bathroom, she pushed fluid through The Blowhole. She soaked up all that fluid with her extra absorbent bandages and filled gallon sized Ziploc bags with medical waste.
This marked the beginning of a special time for my mom and me.
The ability to release some of the pain was also the ability to release some of the stress, tension and fear that both of us had been experiencing.
This is absolutely amazing - I am so so grateful that you are sharing every single detail here without any fear. We are here with you on this journey, learning and praying with open hearts. Yes, lymphatic/blowhole drainage is key! Stunning. Thank you again Kristi.
I’m so glad that your Mom finally had some control over her body and pain issues! It’s the worst when you feel there’s nothing that you can do to lessen the pain! And I think your sweet Mom was adorable in her hats! She really had a wonderfully resilient personality, didn’t she? Being in pain day after day without any recourse is just so grinding on a person. I really am happy that she was granted this relief-quite by “accident”-but what a gift she was given.🥰