Posted in Just Our Day-to-Day Life

How I am growing to hate the word "cancer!"  My mom had three completely different types of cancer, and died from kidney cancer.  My favorite aunt died shortly after that from pancreatic cancer, and my dad now has lung cancer.  Several other aunts and an uncle died from cancer, too.  I had my own cancer scare when I had a large tumor removed from my thyroid years ago. 

On one of my entries from last week, I told how this was the “anniversary” of the worst two weeks in my life.  I didn’t know then that things could get worse.  We found out tonight that Mike’s mom, my mother-in-law, definitely has breast cancer.  How I hoped and prayed that this would turn out to be nothing, and just a benign growth.  

My brother-in-law flew up from Florida to be with her, and went to the doctor’s appointment with her this afternoon to find out the biopsy results.  He called earlier this evening to let me know the news wasn’t good.  I was happy to hear that the doctor is making an appointment with the oncologist that my dad has seen for his lung cancer, so she can have another opinion about what should be done.  Dad’s oncologist is incredible!  I know that my mother-in-law will love her and trust her.  The doctor she saw today has suggested that she will have to choose what type of surgery, and then chemo and, depending on the type of surgery, radiation is also a possibility.  

My dad will be having a PET Scan on Friday for staging on his lung cancer.  It is almost exactly a year since he was diagnosed, so we are hoping they are doing this test just as routine and not because they suspect something is going on.  Dad seems to be doing very, very well, and continues to work several days a week, and his social life has his calendar full nearly every evening.  That’s my dad---you can’t keep him down J

My Aunt Ginny fell yesterday morning in her home.  She is my dad’s older sister, and is 84.  They took her by ambulance to the hospital, and she is still there for observation.  Thank God she didn’t break any bones!  She has been so very weak in her legs lately, and we worry so much about her falling.  But she loves her home, and doing all her own work for the most part yet, so I hope that her kids won’t try to make her go to a nursing home at this point.  It would devastate her.  

My sister-in-law (my brother’s wife) will be having surgery for squamous cell skin cancer on her neck next Wed.  The doctor is 90% sure that it has not spread, but my brother is very worried.  He freaks about anything that concerns health anyway, so I know this has to be hard for him.  

Well, that’s all the new things that have come up this week in the family health-wise.  Please pray for all of my family.  I love them all so much, and it is hard to see them all going through such hard and worrisome times.  It hurts me to see them hurt.  Give an extra prayer for my mother-in-law, as she needs to know the Lord personally.  

Please also continue to pray for my daughter and her husband, as well as the rest of us, as we continue to remember my granddaughter Ellora’s short but precious life.  Chelle sent out birthday remembrance cards to family and friends.  It has the cutest picture of Ellora holding a tiny little teddy bear.  The bear is only about 6-8 inches long, and it looks so big in her arms!   I’ll try to post it for you to see. 

I truly don’t know how people get through times like this without knowing the Lord.  I can’t even begin to tell you all the other things that have gone on in life for me personally and for us as a family this winter.  It seems that life just keeps going from bad to worse, and some days it seems like such a struggle just to get out of bed and face another day.