off to therapy

As mentioned twice before (see here and here), Mom's therapy begins today (May 21). This puts us exactly one calendar month after Mom's debulking surgery. She's improved so much, cognitively and kinesthetically speaking, since April 21. We've been warned that the rigors of therapy will make her appear to regress somewhat, but that this is normal.

To be honest, I'm not looking forward to this retrogressive aspect of the therapy; it's been a pleasure to watch Mom come slowly back to us. Personally, I couldn't care less about the upcoming hair loss (it gets bad around the third week of therapy, we've been warned); the hair will come back, just as it did for my French exchange family's Maman when she underwent treatment for cancer. But seeing Mom become sluggish or uncoordinated again is going to be hard over the next six weeks.

As always, we're thankful for the support given to us by our relatives and friends-- people from church, former coworkers, members of Mom's Korean women's society, and so on. All of these gestures are very much appreciated. I hope you'll forgive me if I don't always thank everyone by name (and wouldn't it be in extremely poor taste for someone to request or demand specific recognition?); sometimes it's hard to keep up with the flood of good will. If you saw our mantel, filled as it is with cards, you'd see what I mean.

Besides-- as a friend of mine pointed out, there's a prominent strain of Jewish thought that says anonymous giving is the highest form of charity. If you happen to be one of the unnamed, consider yourself fortunate: you're not saddled with the burden of vanity that comes with public recognition! After all, people who seek such credit aren't really pure of motive, are they?

We have a lot to think about as we face the upcoming six weeks. Thank you, thank you all, for holding Mom in your thoughts. Please continue to do so.


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