This is long overdue, but I've determined that it's just too difficult to write on a regular basis about my mom's medical journey.  Her privacy, the privacy of other family members, and my own emotional health just seem to preclude writing anything of substance or interest to others.  I'll just stick to the facts:

Mom's spirits have been great, despite the obvious downside of chemo and radiation.  She's had some fun with wigs, hats, and false eyelashes, and has even made it to a few ballroom dance lessons with an oxygen tank slung across her back.   

Small cell lung cancer responds very well to chemo so a significant reduction in size and amount of cancer has already been attained.  As a result, the two collapsed lobes of her right lung have been able to reinflate - and it didn't hurt as we feared it might!  She's finished with the 33 radiation treatments.  She completed 5 of the 6 cycles of chemo before her body stopped tolerating it, so she won't have the 6th one.  When the body stops tolerating chemo it doesn't feel good, to say the least.  With a blood transfusion and a red blood cell booster she's on her way to feeling better.

In about a month she'll have another scan to see what the situation is in her lungs: is it all gone for now, or not?  Shortly thereafter she'll start brain radiation treatments for prophylactic purposes.

Fun, huh?  

Two of my friends have quit smoking as a result of all this, and I couldn't be happier for them.  Mom has been a non-smoker for four months now thanks to the miracle drug Chantix.  Pass it on.