Turbo Cancer: Day 118 - October 7, 2022

The Neck Thing

On this day, last year, my mom wrote:

Linda came yesterday. So comforting, lots of great healthy food, stories from the ‘front,’ spiritual guidance.

Today is the faith share picnic, but high is 52 degrees, so I don’t think I can sit outside that long in the cold. Blood counts too low for an inside party. I’ve done so well for so long that I don’t want to ruin it now. Still torn about it.

Thank you for today. I hope the thing in my neck is nothing.

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The thing in my mom’s neck was very strange.

I noticed it while she was eating.

My mom was sitting in her recliner, having lunch. She had a wooden lap tray, which had been her own mother’s. The tray made meals much easier because my mom didn’t have to walk to the table or sit up in an uncomfortable chair.

While she was eating, I was sitting on the couch, facing her left side. As a child, my mom had gone deaf in her right ear when she had the mumps. The only way that she could hear me was if I sat facing her left side.

I was on the couch looking at her when I noticed something odd. Each time she swallowed; a vein would protrude from her neck. It looked as if the vein had some sort of lump or nodule in it.

I didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t want there to be another problem. My first inclination was to keep this new information to myself. Maybe, if I didn’t say it out loud, it would have just gone away.

I was not good at keeping secrets. My face gave me away before my mouth did.

I couldn’t deny what was right in front of my eyes.

I was sitting on the couch, with my head tilted, staring at my mom’s neck. I was watching the vein and the lump. As my mom chewed her food, the vein protruded outward. When she relaxed her mouth, it settled back into place. I was watching, and wondering what it could be.

It seemed as if the lump and the vein were somehow connected. It looked as if there had been either something inside the vein or something pushing out from behind the vein. Could it have been another tumor? Were there lymph nodes in that area? Maybe a blood clot?

My mom noticed my intent staring and asked me what was up. I was forced to admit to her, and to myself, that I was seeing something new. I was looking at a whole new symptom in a whole new area of the body. It was logical to assume that this new lump was related to turbo cancer.

I took a video, so that I could show my mom what I saw. I needed her professional opinion.

We had no way of knowing what the new thing was. We had several doctor’s appointments coming up. We decided ask the “experts.”

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The Next Day:

To know the whole story, start at the beginning: