Life continues

There's been unexpected improvement on the dad front! His heart, which had been working at 30% capacity (I think I said 35% earlier -- I was wrong), is back up to 65% 58% (EDIT) which is amazing. They said if it improved at all, it would be in the first 45 days, but by that point there'd been no improvement at all. His body continues to defy the medical books. However, one of his... um, ventricles? I dunno -- one of the quadrants or whatever of his heart is extremely enlarged, at 5x its usual size. It's not quite so bad that they're worried about a dangerous amount of arrhythmia (apparently at 6x, they start talking pacemakers), but they're keeping an eye on it.

My mom, on the other hand (for those of you who don't know), has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She had an MRI on Monday to make sure it hasn't spread, and we'll be getting the results early this coming week. Assuming it hasn't, she has a lumpectomy scheduled for next month, followed by six weeks of radiation. But can I be an odd combination of shallow but strangely serious for a moment, and point out how weird the timing was? When we found out, I had just a few episodes of BSG left, and in case you're not familiar with my mom, I should point out point out she's a brunette, blue-eyed retired school teacher. I needed a week or so to emotionally distance myself before I finished watching.

I have been so emotionally involved with this show -- an almost bizarre amount, especially with Roslin's character -- and when I found out about my mom.... I don't know, I felt like the fates were mocking me, or like I'd had my experience with BSG almost to warn me or prepare me or something. (My mom and I are pretty close.) After about a week, these creeped-out feelings calmed down into more rational, normal coincidence territory, but my experience with Battlestar is not one I think I'm going to forget.