Monday, July 13, 2009

I Love You, Tess!!!









Many of you know, unless something directly pertains to the Pre-Raphaelites, I try to keep personal things away from this journal, just to keep it on-theme. But today is an extremely important and emotionally fraught day for me and for many people who read this site...today is Tess Avelland's surgery.

Tess is a dear friend of mine, owner of the beautiful store Midnight Muse: a woman with a fellow passion for the Pre-Raphaelites, and a photographic memory for their art. She is dearer to me than I could probably ever express, and she has popped up occasionally on this site. Last Christmas, she went into the hospital for appendicitis, or so it appeared. During the procedure, however, they found a much more serious problem. After a stay at the hospital over the holidays, she was given the diagnosis: a rare form of cancer, Pseudomyxoma Peritonei. PMP, as it's known for short, is a cancer of the abdomen, and can spread to any of the vital organs in the abdominal region. Since it is such a rare cancer, there is little known about it. But the common treatment is a surgery, cytoreduction, known in the PMP community as the MoaS, or Mother of all Surgeries. The name of this surgery isn't given lightly...basically, depending on the advancement of the cancer, all or many non-vital organs are removed from the abdomen, and a heated chemotherapy is poured into the cavity. This is the surgery Tess will be undergoing today.

There is very little else I can think about right now. Tess is a beautiful woman, with a great love for beautiful art, so I thought I would post a few images that make me think of her.

Heal quickly, my Sister of Beauty. Si je puis, and I know you can.


8 comments:

Hermes said...

Very best of good luck to your friend Grace.

alaine@éclectique said...

My Prayers for Tess and yourself.

Anonymous said...

I hope all goes well with her surgery. What an ordeal!

Castles Crowns and Cottages said...

My dear Grace, I am a woman who believes in prayer. I will be engaging my heart and mind in this matter today and you as well will be in my prayers. My heart just dropped as I read your post. God bless you all. I am sure that you will keep us posted; if you can, please give Tess our love. Anita

Margaret said...

The surgery does sound awful--all my best wishes for Tess!

babastudioPrague said...

I hope it all goes well for her.

Jim said...

I expect as I'm writing this that Tess has already had her surgery so I hope everything went better than expected. Having worked around cancer patients awaiting surgery I'm aware of how scary a thing it can be, so I'm sure the love of friend's and family as expressed by yourself will be a great comfort to her. Best wishes, Jim

Jennifer said...

This is a beautiful post, Grace. Healing thoughts all around.