The mom and husband went to spend their weekend at her mother's house and after a night of intense and unbearable pain the husband decided to take the mom back to the hospital. She'd just been released from the hospital not 24 hours prior. She’d been released once the doctors were able to get her pain under control. It seemed as if the only thing that helped anymore was IV pain medication and after only a few hours off the IV pain medication the mother's pain would return worse than before. She was weak from hardly eating and it was hard for the mom to stay awake at this point. All that the mother would say was that she was okay and tired and she would ask for permission to sleep.

It was so sad hearing her repeat those words over and over in her weakened voice. All her life she’d been a force to be reckoned with, she’d been the strongest person her daughters had ever known. To hear their mother sound so weak and to keep asking for permission to rest was hard. Seeing the change from strong and independent to barely able to hold herself up had broken the woman’s family.

Cancer not only hurts the person with the disgusting disease, it destroys the family members as well. Having to take care of and see everything a person you love with cancer has to go through is devastating.

It was no surprise to all when it was determined that the mom had another bowel obstruction and would need another surgery. It was like deja vu. All the same feelings came rushing back that they’d felt the first time they heard those same words almost a year before.

Hearing that another surgery was necessary scared her family. It had been said numerous times that there was a possibility she wouldn’t survive the surgery a year before when she was a lot stronger, what did that mean now that she needed the same surgery, but this time she was nowhere near as strong as she had been. It was a risk that the woman and her family decided was necessary to take. If nothing was done she’d only get worse, but with the surgery she at least had a chance to continue to fight for more time.

The family wasn't given long after the decision was made to do the surgery, but the doctors did allow the family to call her mother to see her before they took her to the back to be prepped for her surgery. The family called all the mom's extended family and all that was left to do was wait and see what would happen. They were once again told to prepare for the worst case scenario which was that she wouldn't make it through surgery. The family hated hearing those words. They hated hearing them last year and they hated hearing them even more this year. You'd think they'd be used it them by now, but they weren't. They would never get used to hearing to prepare to lose the most important person to all of them. That's what she was, she was the one that held her little family together and there was no way they wanted to go on without her. Ever.

This was going to be the longest wait of their lives…

After what must have been hours, the mother's nurse came out and asked her husband and children to meet in a separate room in the back to speak to the surgeon. At that moment it was becoming clear that it wasn’t going to be good news. Nothing good ever comes from being told the doctor wants to speak to you in a back room.

As the family waited for the doctor to go in and speak to them all the worst outcomes were circling in their minds. She had to be okay, she just had to.

After what seemed like forever the surgeon finally walked in and sat down to explain all that had transpired during the surgery.

There was too much damage to the bowels... There was nothing that could be done to save the mother... They had to place a tube in her belly to allow all contents to come out and not stay blocked in her intestine... If not it would cause more vomiting... She was no longer allowed any food... There was no point in giving her nutrients through an IV... She was allowed water and liquids for comfort, but that was it...

So much more was said, but it all began to blur and not much else was remembered. Nothing else really mattered, nothing else was really important. All that mattered was the part that there wasn't anything else they could do for their mom.

What was not a blur was what came next, and that news was just too much to hear.

She would only survive a few days to a couple of weeks longer. That's what the doctor told them. That was their time frame.

They only had at best two weeks with their mom before the lack of nutrients would weaken her to the point of unconsciousness. Then it wouldn't be long. She would simply pass away.

Those were the words the family hoped they wouldn't have to hear for a long time. Be prepared she wouldn't make it, they hadn't prepared themselves for that outcome because it just wasn't going to happen. She'd beat the odds so many times before, surely she'd do it again right? Wrong, not this time. This time they'd been told there wasn't much time left.

How were they supposed to go on without the woman that meant the world to them? How was this possible? How could God be doing this to them? Their world was crashing down on them and there was nothing anyone could do to make it any better.

All hope was lost. Two weeks…two damn weeks.

The surgeon left the family to sit with the information. They talked among themselves and cried. Nobody could believe that they were here already, that the end had actually come. Even knowing they'd been given a year a year earlier no one really thought the day would come. She'd done everything she was supposed to. She ate what she was supposed to, she went to all her chemo appointments, she kept a positive attitude. Why was this happening?

Denial is a really strong word. Denial had been what everyone had been in the whole year which is why hearing this now was so hard to believe.

There really wasn't anything left to say or do. After the family sat there in that room in silence for what seemed like forever they headed out to inform the rest of the family that there was nothing left to do.

Nobody wanted to hear what they had to say and they didn't want to have to say it, but it had to be done. Everyone had a lot to say, they all had opinions on what should be done next. What if they did this, or what if they did that, should they get a second opinion, how could they just let them starve her to death, what should they do? But there was nothing that could be done. It was just time.

The disgusting disease had won. A year later they'd come full circle and it was just as horrible as it was the first time, only this time they knew what the outcome was. There was no reason to hope any longer. They would all have to deal with the fact that their wife and mother would not make it much longer.

After the news finally sunk in no one knew what else to say, what else to do. Some were in denial, some knew the time had come, but all knew that they loved this woman to no end. She was a fighter and had fought with all she had, sadly it was a battle she could not win.

Start Chapter 9 - True Colors