Jack of Harts

My Mom has cancer. Again. She had breast cancer over a decade ago, but has been cancer free since. A month ago, she saw a fast growing growth on her leg and decided she had to get it looked at. The doctors at Mayo didn’t think it was much, but they agreed to take it off and scheduled her for a quick surgery to do that. Two weeks ago, the results came back and it was cancer. Melanoma. A kind that starts in the skin but travels a lot. She was supposed to get it operated on yesterday, but she got a nasty cold and an infection while we were treating the surgery site. She’s on antibiotics now to treat the infection, and I have a plan to deal with it from the other side.

Several years ago, I had a similar wound in my leg that got infected. I’m remembering how we treated it back then, and I have plans for Mom now. Hydrogen Peroxide wash. Anti-biotic ointment. Petroleum Jelly-infused pads. I should have thought of these weeks ago, but it’s been years since I’ve used all of them and Mayo didn’t remind me. It bugs me sometimes, how much we know about how to stop infections…and yet we forget it all when the time comes to use it. We lose more people to infections than anything else. It’s been that way for thousands of years. Well, this infection isn’t going to get my Mom. Cause I both know AND remember, and there will be a reckoning now. And then its time for the Cancer to meet its end.