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Our Mom Is Getting Better
By Alex Silver, Emily Silver, Anna Rose Silver, Jill Russel American Cancer Society
Copyright © 2007 American Cancer Society
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60443-164-3
CHAPTER 1
This is a special day. It's Mom's last session of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is a kind of medicine, also called "chemo," that makes you feel yucky, but it helps get rid of cancer. Our mom had cancer. But at last, after months and months of treatment, she is finally going to be done. We surprise her with a new watch and tell her, "This watch means it's time to start healing." We are all really happy about chemotherapy ending and healing beginning.
Even though Mom has had her last chemo treatment, she isn't feeling much better yet. She is very tired all the time and tells us that she can't do a lot of things she used to do. Staying at home makes Mom feel bored, but she is still too sick to go to work. All the people at school and in our neighborhood know that Mom was sick with cancer.
Today Mom had a checkup with the doctor. Although the worst part of the cancer treatment is over, the doctor wants her to keep taking some medicine. While Mom and Dad were gone, Grandma came over to baby-sit. We played some fun games with Grandma, but we missed Mom.
Mom's doctor tells her she should exercise more by taking walks. Mom says that we should all try to walk at least 10,000 steps every day. Now we go on lots of family walks. Mom wears a pedometer, a small machine that counts the number of steps a person takes. She is happy that everyone in the family is walking more, and she is happy that we are all getting healthier!
After Mom finished her chemotherapy, people stopped bringing us dinner. So Mom and Dad started cooking again. Mom tells us that we should try to eat lots of fruits and vegetables every day. At first, this seemed hard and we didn't like it, but now we are used to it. We like fruits better than vegetables!
It takes a long time for Mom's hair to start to grow back. After a few weeks, she begins to get some hair, but it's really short. She is still tired, so she goes to bed early. Mom goes to bed earlier than anyone else. She needs a lot of rest. Dad helps us get ready for bed, and he says that someday Mom will feel better.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Our Mom Is Getting Better by Alex Silver, Emily Silver, Anna Rose Silver, Jill Russel. Copyright © 2007 American Cancer Society. Excerpted by permission of American Cancer Society.
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