I'm not Cancer Boy anymore! Who am I now?: Ep 7: Nothing left to do but burn stuff

Sunday 29th April 2012

So there we were, sitting on Mums bed, she was telling us about the procedure she was prepping for, it involved her drinking 4 liters of some fluid. A nurse would come at 7:30am the next morning to have Mum swallow a Pill Camera and attach a receiver to her which the Pill Camera transmits the pictures to, it travels through her intestines and takes 60,000 photos over 8 hours.

We chatted about other stuff for a while, I was beginning to waver, starting to talk myself out of telling her, Marlenes right, Mum might not cope, she might stop doing the procedure, then common sense prevailed.

"Mum I need to talk to you about some stuff" and I delivered the story, Mum sat there quietly, she very typically looked at me and said "wat betekent dat allemaal, dat begrijp ik niet", To translate, for the young players in the audience, and those of you who aren't Dutch, its Mums way of expressing dismay and disbelief, it basically means "what are you saying, I cant believe what I'm hearing", this is not a direct translation its more of a gist of what she was saying.

Mum remained calm, she had a very sad look on her face as she asked the usual questions.
The conversation went something like this
"what will happen? - I don't know yet Mum"
"what did the Doctor say? - he said I need to do a lot of tests and see the Specialist"
"Ja, maar Johnny, je kunt het vechten, je bent toch sterk"

Actual Translation - Yes but Johnny you can fight it, you are strong
Gist of what she meant - I have faith in you, you are strong and you will beat this

This is Mums way of saying it will all be OK, somehow it felt like it would be, we talked for a while longer about other stuff and then it was time to go and I got my hug, it was a warm strong hug that ended with "you will be OK and I love you".

We drove home, I spoke with Jacqui about the whole thing, we both agreed Mum was fine and that she really is a tough old girl. Marlene went to see Mum not long after we left, as she was leaving she text me to say Mum was fine and that I was right, she was coping well with the news.