martes, septiembre 05, 2006

L*'s Chemo Altar



Okay, for the longest time I've been saying "photos to follow," pero, nada. Well L* has put her foot down (and picked her camera up).

Above is her chemo altar. After her surgery, we took down the surgery altar.

L*'s chemo altar has contributions from many friends:

The stones came from Butterflies&Blades (and Little R); Mlei, Miche (and JC and V*V*) They represent the chakras, lined up on the tree of life. (Miche put them in order for us!)

In the lower left-hand corner, there's a keychain made by Frefrinia (and Litle E), and features a handmade shrinkydink of Frida.

You might also spot a little homey, ("to make me tough," L* says), some native corn from my grad student (quinceañera grrl), A photographic postcard featuring the art of Mica (@machanoticias), a conference nametag from MALCS featuring the art of the Digital Diva, some tierra santa de chimayo from the altar of La Chicana (@chicanas.com), our homemade holy candle to Santa Maria Aegiptus, a lace doily crocheted by Ktrion, essential oils mixed by L* (peppermint, lavender and clary sage).

Many other thoughtful gifts have been sent by friends y familia (right now L* is wearing new yoga pants from Espy&ElPaso), sus padres sent her a shirt to protect her from the sun (plus ginger flavored lollipops). Sus colegas have prepared many a nurturing meal.

MLG gave not only her love but her time, staying with us the weekend and midweek that L* had chemo and Ktrion started classes. She cooked us yummy soups, drove L* to her appointments, and gave us lots of TLC

We're now in the third round of chemo (week #2), and so far it's been a bitch! Last week, fever and infection, for which L* was prescribed an antibiotic, which is this week producing HIVES!

7 comentarios:

Unknown dijo...

its a beautiful altar, definitely inspiring. i will keep both of you in my thoughts and send healing vibes your way. *big cyber-hug*

Lingual X dijo...

Hey there, I've been lurking on yoru site for a while. Amazing site! I loved the altar. Very, very awesome!

I'm just sending you a quick note to make sure that you know I am hosting the next Carnival of Feminists on September 20th. My focus is on women and healthcare (but all feminist posts are welcome!). I'm hoping you might consider submitting something fabulous for the carnival, especially given some of your recent posts.

The complete call is on my site: http://www.fervidus.typepad.com.

Thanks for considering this!

Lingual X

brownfemipower dijo...

i absolutly *love* that candle...you've had it in a lot (if not all) of the altars you've posted and every time, i've just sat and admired that candle...i wish so hard some times that i lived in a cool place with lots of mexicans/latinas--the coolest candle i've been able to find out here is a candle with la virgin who is sorta painted brownish and looks like she may or may not have hair on her lip. and on the back is the prayer begging god to let us be as submissive and gentle and sweet as our dear virgin. haha...blacked over the prayer!!!
:-)

brownfemipower dijo...

ps is mlei the famous mlei who made it out of university of michigan last year?? i think i met her and chatted with her for a while!

sonrisa morena dijo...

beautiful alter!! beats my Frida alter!!! i hope L feels better...les mando un huuuge hug :-)

Ktrion dijo...

Hey you all:

Thanks for the love!


We made that candle: Found a picture on the internet, printed it out on a trasparency, taped it like a sleeve around a plain candle.

PS to BFP: no this is the famous MLei whose a prof at UCLA

brownfemipower dijo...

oops, yup ktrion, that's what I meant--that she made it out TO u of m last year, for a latino heritage month or something like that. she talked with me briefly about my potential phd project--didn't have a lot of time, but she was super nice...