Day 12 - Cancer moms don't make good friends

I read something recently that said "Cancer Moms don't make very good friends". You know, its true. We don't make very good friends. We forget birthdays and holidays. We forget to send thank you notes. We forget to call you back. Our eyes glaze over when you talk about...well, anything.

Our minds are so full of medicine schedules, doctors appointments, test results, packing for the next hospital stay, repacking our bag as soon as we get home because we don't know when we will have to rush back to the hospital, trying to make sure we pick up the latest medicine from the pharmacy, making sure there is gas in the car, rescheduling - lots of things, playing phone tag with the doctor, dressing wounds and line sites, hooking up feeding tubes, learning how to flush central lines and ports, using NG tubes and GI tubes, making sure we have child care for our other children, making sure we don't run out of any prescriptions, checking our child's temperature - sometimes several times a day, trying to remember the last time we had a shower....the list goes on.

We don't make very good friends when our child has cancer, but we sure need good friends!

We need friends who will take care of our other children at a moment's notice, friends who will not get upset if we forget your birthday or anniversary, or forget to call you back. We need friends who will bring us a home cooked meal when we are in the hospital for the 12th day in a row. We need friends who will pray for us every single day. We need friends who will call and check on us and ask if there is anything we need, even if we have told you 100 times before that we are fine. We need friends who will offer to do something fun with our other children just so we can have a break while we are home from the hospital. We need friends who will write us notes of encouragement from time to time. We need friends who will offer to come over for an hour so we can bathe for the first time in who knows how long, or even take a much needed nap. We need friends who will offer to do specific things, like come over to make a dent in our mountain of laundry, or sink overflowing with dishes, or to mop the floors or sanitize the house. We need friends who will bring food, cleaning supplies, paper plates and cups, and toilet paper so we don't have to run out and get it ourselves when our time at home is so precious.

I am so grateful to have had people do many of these things for me. I wish I could have been a better friend, but you have been a good friend to me in my hardest time, and I hope and pray that when you face hard times I will be there to do these things for you. That when you can't be a good friend, I can step up and be a good friend to you.

Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."