In sickness and in health

Today I'm celebrating H's glow, which I imagine I can see from Canada.  It's like a different kind of Northern Light!  H is my sister back in the states, and she's concluding her radioactive iodine treatment for her thyroid cancer today.  Tonight, she's allowed to rejoin society and eat whatever she wants, which is definite cause for celebration.

I found out she had possible malignant tumors growing in her neck after my going away party at work, the night before my last day at school.  (Hint: don't open the conversation with your sister, "Hey, do you have cancer?" because she might.)  J was in Toronto, and the kids were in the back seat of the van as we went up and down over the back hills of Virginia.  The results were inconclusive, but suspicious, and surgery was warranted.  It was a lot to handle.

Thyroid cancer is a fast-growing cancer and is fortunately one of the easier cancers to treat.  She had surgery the Monday after Christmas, and spent one night in the hospital. Her scar is beautiful and will be invisible in a few months.  Her thyroid was removed completely and she'll remain on medication to regulate her metabolism for the rest of her life.  It was then it was confirmed that the tumors were cancerous and that she would have to have radiation treatment.

To prepare for radiation, she had to eliminate iodine for her diet for a few weeks, which is really, really hard. She lost a lot of weight and her hair started falling out because it was hard for her to eat a balanced diet. On top of this, she started a new job and she has been traveling across country.

I don't think she often knows or really realizes how I feel about her. What sibling really does?  But I've been so proud of her the past few weeks. She's dealt with this with such grace, beauty and bravery, much more than I could have.  I wish that we could have been with her to hug her and and make her special, iodine-free meals, but instead all we could offer was skype sessions with crabby kids.

Of course, if we were there, we'd have to wear the suits the government agents wear in E.T., so that we wouldn't be exposed to her radioactivity, and talk like Darth Vader, and we'd probably be playing Britney's "Toxic" on a loop, and we'd make lots of other funny jokes about her glow.  But really, it would just be a way of expressing our worry and our love about our H going through something we'd rather protect her from.  Love you, H.