(no subject)

[d_trektone_w]

Spent the weekend w/sis and mom. The main downer was brunching with a family friend (she's my age; our parents were friends so we kind of grew up together) and her partner: she wanted to get together to tell us in person she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. One tumor the size of an apple, another a walnut. I'll need to do more research, but this sounded bad. Still, she was upbeat, describing the chemo and (likely) subsequent surgery to remove stuff. Sigh.

The rest of the weekend was pretty good. Lots of talking and eating. Sis and I had errands to run, and mom was happy to ride along with us. My non-iPhone cell is slowly falling apart and I'm looking for a sturdy replacement without a lot of extras. Maybe I'll get a Chocolate just for the name.

Sunday dim sum lunch was a longer-than-expected wait (1/2 hour) at Asian Pearl, but very yum. An item I'd not previously had and would get again was one of those deep-fried Chinese "donuts" with the exterior covered with rice noodle. Sis said it was a variation of a typical Taiwanese dish. Mom consumed an entire bowl of the sweet, soft tofu. The scallop-shrimp steamed dumplings were particularly good.

Oh, yeah. Sis also brought a box of fudge for me to try. A friend of hers was looking to market organic fudge and wanted feedback. It was decent, but a bit grainy and I felt the chocolatey-ness was obscured by the sweetness. I'm not aware of any company in the U.S. doing organic fudge, although I think I had some at a farmers' market or harvest festival a couple of years ago. Anyone heard of such a thing?

Comments

ovarian cancer

[janmagic.livejournal.com]

hi,
i used to think ovarian cancer was a true death sentence. however i met a friend at torcon in 2003 when i was sporting a bald head, and she has been under treatment for the past 5 years and still kicking. if she were to have it removed she would need attachments to use the bathroom so she is fighting it with radiation and chemo therapy. if your friend want to talk to someone who has been there send me her email and i can connect them.
janmagic@sbcglobal.net

Re: ovarian cancer

[trektone.livejournal.com]

I think I met that woman at Torcon, too. If the family friend would like a contact, I'll send her over to you to connect her with the other woman. Thanks for the post!

[astro-not1.livejournal.com]

Cancer is not fun. I lost my grandmother and a sister to various forms, and one of Kathy Horning's cousins battled breast and ovarian cancer for over a decade before she passed away this past January. Outlook is everything with cancer these days; if your friend is positive-thinking, then she will likely fare much better than otherwise.
That isn't saying she'll be fine; there will likely be good days and bad, and whether or not she needs harsher therapies will be determined by how early they caught the cancer. I hope they caught it early.
On a happier note, I can't say I've heard of anyone marketing organic fudge anywhere in the USA. Your sister's friend may have something there, once they work the bugs out of it (no pun intended).

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree positive outlook can help a lot. We'll see.

And re: organic fudge. If they start marketing nationally I'll probably do a follow-up post here.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Yeah about your best friend. Sometimes all we can do is be there (something I learned in my early 20's when AIDS first hit).

Mom is doing pretty well, all things considered. Yay!

Organic (and magic) fudge! Hey, I'd invest in that!

[carolf.livejournal.com]

My cousin had ovarian cancer when she was 8 yrs old, resulting in the loss of one of her ovaries. She is now 60yrs old, with 2 adult children.

The good thing about ovarian cancer, especially if caught early, is that it is relatively easily removed *completely.* (If there is anything good about cancer ...)

So, yes, there is reason to hope.

Have her contact her nearby Cancer Society chapter. Lots of cancer survivors volunteer specifically to give moral support to future survivors.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll ask her if she's already contacted the local chapter.