And then there were ten

Ten more chemoradiation treatments to go for my love.  If they are anything like the last eighteen, he is in for two more weeks of exhaustion and nausea, watching _The Love Boat_ and _Miami Vice_ in his recliner because he cannot do anything else.  Two more weeks of sleeping and more sleeping; two more weeks of a queasy stomach and Cream of Wheat.  Trevor has been really compliant and uncomplaining, and I'm incredibly proud of how well he is handling everything.

Sometimes I'm not certain the rest of us are doing so hot.  Although the kids are still fairly unaware of all of the details or just how serious this cancer is, they're both agitated and jittery.  Lottie has become even more worried about things than she normally is and full of "what if" questions.  Dallas is oddly more high-energy than normal, but it's edged with slight anger and irritability.  I spend a lot of time reassuring them that we'll all get through this and Trevor will be okay, but time is very elastic to little kids.  The thought that all of this will continue on into 2015 is more than they can understand, more than they can handle.  They want to know when Dad will be better, what day, what hour.  I can't give them those exact answers, and it makes me feel helpless, inefficient, and just completely worthless.  I struggle with keeping things normal in a really abnormal situation.  There still has to be routine and discipline, but how much is too much?  When is enough enough?

I spend the daylight hours trying to make Trevor as comfortable as possible and trying to continue with everyday life for the kids.  At night when everyone else is asleep, I have time to slow down and take a quick look inside myself.  Most of the days, I don't see a lot but a tired mom who has done a decent job of keeping all the balls in the air that day.  But every once in a while, I see a caricature of a pouty child who has a "why me" speech bubble coming out of her mouth.  I want to be in one of the happy family pictures I see on Facebook of people at the beach, playing in the waves, smiling with ice cream cones.  I'm not jealous of their good fortune; I really enjoy seeing how different people are spending the summer.  It's not the actual traveling I miss but rather the idea of a carefree time of togetherness.  Sometimes I do wonder why it had to happen to Trevor.  What did he do, what did we do as a family, to deserve to have to deal with this all?

 Logically, I know it's all random chance and happenstance: Our family wasn't chosen specifically.  We're not being punished or singled out.  This is just some rotten stuff that is happening in the now.  It won't last forever, even though sometimes it seems like it will never end, and it WILL get better.  We are lucky to have family and friends who do so much for all of us, and it's frustrating to me that I'm not in the position at the moment to give a lot back.  I yearn to rediscover my own availability to others and to find one single moment when cancer isn't floating just above each thought I have.  I want to stop living in the world of When This Is Over.  It'll be a lengthy journey, but I'll have to keep moving forward until I can find all that I seek.