This week's update

Well, let's see.

1) met with the thoracic surgeon and have surgery scheduled for mom on 5/15.
2) Mom immediately said she wanted to purchase burial plots & plan funerals.
3) Learned that Dad is (understandably) upset about mom's diagnosis and in her efforts to calm him
4) Learned that mom has told Dad if she dies first, Dad can still live at home alone and I'll take care of him.

Well, well, well....I arranged #1. Was cool with that. Dismayed but could understand #2 & #3. Horrified to learn that my mom has been making promises to my dad about what I will do for him without talking it over with me first.

So...we move to surgery.

My brother was informed of OUR mom's upcoming surgery. His response "He'd try to get off work."

I called him today on the way to get OUR parents to go burial plot shopping. I wanted him to pray that we'd find what we needed and to ask him if he'd found out if he could get off work. He said he could come for the day of surgery and the day after. Then he'd need to go back home to work his other job. I asked if he'd asked off from that job and was told that "if you don't give them 30 days notice, you don't get off." To which I replied, "Well, if you explain that it's for cancer surgery, they might find a way to let you take the next 4 days off."

His response was "I'm not coming for a week. Why should I?"

To which I said "They are your parents too and I need help!"

"With what?" he said.

At that point, I thought well...what IS the point?

Another reason he gave for not wanting to stay longer was that his son has a baseball tournament that weekend. God forbid that his kid go without my brother's presence at a stupid baseball tournament.

You'd think that our parents would rate higer than a s#$%^& baseball tournament.

On the upside of things, we did find burial plots for my parents. Expensive, but very nice. The funeral home here will honor the pre-needs funeral contracts my parents purchased in their previous hometown. So now mom and dad just have to pay for the plots and the stuff that goes with that.

Now we just need to move on to the rest of the stuff on Mom's list that she wants to do prior to surgery.

We've met the Thoracic Surgeon

We met with the surgeon today. He took a detailed medical history & looked at mom's CT scans. He's tentatively set surg. for 5/15, pending agreement from all others involved.

He said that he would attempt to do surgery w/ a throraciscope, to keep the surgery as simple as possible. But cannot promise that larger incision will not be necessary.

If the quick pathology done right then shows lung cancer the entire lobe will need to be removed. He feels that the likelihood of the tumor being uterine cancer is lower than the chance of lung cancer. But we won't really know until surgery & pathology are complete.

Please pray for peace for us all, as I need to help mom and dad get the rest of their legal affairs in order, shop for burial plots, plan funerals, etc. Of course, once we get all of that done, Mom will live to 105 and we'll get to laugh about how we ran around like crazy doing this 'way back when.' ;-)

Thoracic Surgeon appt. scheduled

I ended up calling the thoracic surgeon's office today. We got an appt. for TOMORROW afternoon at 5 PM. Can you believe it? God is good! We'll know more tomorrow night.

Sad news

We learned yesterday that a friend of ours (my husband's age) S died in his sleep. He leaves behind a wife and two sons. The oldest son in a soph in college; the youngest, a 9th grader. Nothing can prepare you for something like this. It's just so very, very sad.

And our SS class has been ministering to another family where the dad is terminal. And yet S seemed to be the picture of health and how he's gone.

I have drafted a letter to my lawyer to get all my legal affairs in order, because you never know what tomorrow brings.

Sad.

I'm calmer today

We have a plan!

The oncologist said he believes that Mom's lung is the only spot w/ cancer right now. We're to see the pulmonologist on Good Friday. I would imagine he'll set up an appt. w/ a thorasic surgeon and we'll get that taken out of mom as soon as possible.

As for the pancreas, we'll monitor that spot very closely the oncologist said.

I am exhausted today -- mainly because I worked myself into a tizzy Tues & Wed. worrying about what the plan for mom would be.

I'm mad

I am grumpy and tired and am currently studying Job in Bible study...and feel like I am relating on some level. I know that Job's sufferings were MUCH greater than mine. But I do relate to his frustration at why things are allowed to happen. At least I know that on this side of the cross, that Jesus IS there in heaven pleading my case to God. I have a redeemer. I have a high priest to be my intercessor. I do NOT have to wonder if I will see God with my own eyes someday, as Job may have. His faith showed that he was confident that he would see God.

I guess if Job can hang in there with all that happened to him (lost all his children, all his servants, all his livestock, and his health) I can survive the wait to see what is coming for my mom.

I just need to splash around in the pool of self-pity today and then get over it.

What a week!

Hubby returned from a quick trip to NC on Tuesday night. Wednesday we did NOT have mom's biopsy; Thursday she & I each saw the endocrinologist and Friday she had her mammogram. The needle biopsy that was to be on Wed. was moved to Mon. of next week. Today it was cancelled alltogether.

Next week on Friday, we meet w/ the oncologist to discuss her treatment plan.

Mom's test was clear!

the Mammogram was clear today.

Hooray!

The Donovans

My sunday School class and church are helping out a family in our community. The husband/dad is very ill -- terminal. He was let go at work 17 months ago; no insurance. The wife lost her job because she had to take off so much time to care for her husband. The house is now in forclosure. They have 3 teenage daughters. The only income they have is the money he receives from SSI and that barely covers his prescription medications.

The house is set to be auctioned off in the next week. if that happens, we don't know where the family will go.

If you wish to contribute in any way to the help that's being provided to this family, please call my church tomorrow:

Hunter's Glen Baptist Church in Plano, TX
972-867-1610