The "C" Word...

It's been one of those things that for once in my life it was hard to talk about. My mom was diagnosed with cancer around the end of June. We found out while we were on vacation and I haven't really been telling many people.

She discovered a small tumor on the tip of her kidney as well as a large 7 inch tumor on her ovary. She knew she had something on her ovary since about February or March but the doctors told her it would go away. Then she started having bad pains in her stomach and went in for more scans. At first they didn't see the ovary just that the kidney "did not look good." Then with more tests they found the ovary had a very large tumor on it as well. They do not think that the ovary tumor is cancer but the kidney tumor does look to be cancer. At first it was very, very scary. Thankfully once she got in to see the oncologist he let her know that she should be fine.

They are planning on taking the tip of her kidney out as well as the tumors, ovaries and fallopian tubes. She had her uterus taken out quite a few years ago so they don't need to worry with that. They are hoping to get everything done laproscopically and she will stay one night in the hospital and be released. They are pretty confident that she will not need any radiation. Her surgery is scheduled for mid-August.

It feels like a "one and done" but it still makes me nervous. I don't like how the ovary and the kidney have something wrong and they are close to one another inside the body. My dad, the voice of doom, also freaks you out. I know he is worried and always speaks his mind so you never know what thought he might let slip out. I would say he is taking all of this the hardest, even worse than my mom.

I am hopeful that everything will work out just fine after her surgery but it is very nerve racking until we finally get to that day! She has been feeling more sick lately. She has pain in her stomach area and is nauseous with fever pretty much all day, every day.

Today at Walmart, I started to pick a big bag of bird seed out of the shopping cart. She yelled "Don't pick that up your pregnant." I replied, "Yeah, and you have cancer." Enough said I won that battle of who gets to pick up heavy stuff. It honestly is not good for her to lift things. A few weeks ago we were at a bouncy house thing for my oldest niece's birthday. Mom was getting in to the bouncy things to take pictures and play with the girls. Later that night she paid for it and was hurting. So for now we will be babying her. She can just learn to enjoy it while it lasts!

To add to her list of things gone wrong she just had her last day at work Friday. She as well as the rest of the plant was laid-off from a local GM plant in the area. I told her that pretty soon she'll be able to write her own country song!

With humor and hopefulness we are looking to the future and hoping this will just turn out to be a blip on the radar!