Family Togetherness

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer three or four weeks ago. Unfortunately, this is not the first time she has fought the disease, it's the second. Because it's the second time there are some ups, and a lot of downs. As a family we know what we're in for, which is a good thing, but as a family we know what we're in for.

The past three weeks have been crazy. I've been out of it for most of my schoolwork (unfortunately that's affected this class). My life this semester was already going to be super busy with my fiance living in North Carolina, and an event like this makes life infinitely more busy. There are also daily changes/updates as to what's going on with my mom's cancer. Mostly for the negative. The surgery date has moved multiple times, the type of surgery has changed, the cancer is worse than previously thought, she's going to have to have 3 different types of chemo, possibly radiation, they're doing genetic testing, my mom's also trying to help with wedding planning, I could go on but I'll stop there.

Even though this has been another trying experience for my mom, one thing that has made a hug positive impact in her life is social media.

When first diagnosed, my parents wanted to keep the news in the family for the first few days so we could have time to cope with the changes that would/are/will be happening. After numerous phone calls my mom decided to put the news onto Facebook. The response was overwhelming. People sent her messages, responded to her post on Facebook, came over in person, sent texts, emailed, called, and skyped among other things.

My parents tried to figure out a way to keep everyone up-to-date, and one of our close family friends suggested a blog. My parents set one up and so far the results have been great. Not only does my mom get comfort from people commenting on the blog, she is able to bless others she's never met by sharing her experiences with cancer.

I'm an incredibly private person. I don't often share personal details of my life, but because we're in a digital culture class that involves a lot of time outside the classroom it's hard not to share something like this. (That's worthy of a blog post and discussion of its own). I've debated creating a blog post like this, but when I joined the Digital Sweet Home project I realized a blog post like this fits in directly with what we're trying to accomplish.