This summer has been a tough one. My mom was first diagnosed with breast cancer sixteen years ago and twice since then, the family has made a collective sigh of relief when she passed the statistically significant milestones of 5 years as a survivor. This summer we were cheated again when doctors determined that the lump she found in her armpit was malignant. They also discovered a tumor in her spine. I guess after a full mastectomy and more than seven years of lying dormant, the cancer decided to rear its ugly head again. We went through a couple of months of tests and discussions before mom decided on a combined treatment of chemo and hormone therapy. I went home to spend most of August with her and the rest of my family. Needless to say, there hasn’t been much time for writing.
From the little writing I have done though, I notice that it’s hard to write in English when everyone around you is speaking Swedish. I have a similar problem in the US when I try to write emails in Sweden, but I attributed that to being so immersed in English for so long that I’ve lost part of my native language. Maybe what’s really happening is that my brain throws a switch and only interprets and outputs in the language that’s going on around it. Often I find it easier to write emails in Swedish while in the US if I play Swedish music in the background. Maybe that’s the tool that flips the switch, so to speak. In the past, when my husband joins me for visits to my family at home, my head is very tired after a day of switching back and forth between English and Swedish. It makes me really admire interpreters who often speak only a word or two behind the people they are interpreting for. Obviously, their switches must be much more oiled and therefore friction free than mine.
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I’m leaving on good news though. After the first cycle of treatments, it appears that mom’s armpit tumor is shrinking. We’re hoping this is an indication of a significant reduction showing up on her scans that will be taken after two more rounds of three week cycles. Anybody reading this post, please visit the Breast Cancer or Susan G. Komen Foundation sites and consider making a donation.