Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Update on my grandma...

I heard from my parents tonight and we got the pathology reports back from the lymph nodes and the tumor they removed in the surgery on Monday. Prior to surgery, the doctor's discovered from one of her scans that her lymph nodes are swollen. I suspected that it was no longer Stage 2, but now Stage 3 colon cancer, and that's exactly what the pathology report shows. The only people that weren't surprised where me and my parents because they were the only people I told my "hunch" to. However, because it is a Stage 3c (early stage 3 otherwise known), there is a 75-80% of recovery with treatment. In 2 weeks, she will follow up with the surgeon and they will refer her to an oncologist then. She will most likely start chemo in 4-6 weeks after she has recovered from her surgery.

My grandma is up walking, talking, and getting back to being herself. She is expected to be home by the end of this week. Hopefully, all things will continue to go well...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Robbery

Tonight, I decided to finally go through the Mount Everest sized pile of mail I had waiting for me when I returned yesterday. A weeks' worth of mail certainly adds up! I miss the good old days when you were excited about getting mail and never getting bills!

Anyways, going through my stack of mail, I noticed one from my condo association. In the mail was a newsletter that they're not always good about putting out. They say they do it quarterly but we only get them once a year usually. I started reading this newsletter and plastered across it was news about a robbery that happened in our neighborhood recently. A Robbery??? Who would have thought my tiny neighborhood would be affected by this type of crime? When I moved in, I decided to nix the idea of getting an alarm system because we are a townhome community. If someone was going to get robbed, one of my neighbors were going to hear it through the wall! My grandma even tried to unsuccessfully get me to invest in a taser gun after getting on herself!

I still find it ironic how life can change so fast. One minute I felt so safe in my little townhome and the next, I am looking at alarm companies, trying to decide who to go with. Maybe I should invest in a taser gun like my grandma did...

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Hola again






Just returned from Mexico a few hours ago and I already want to go back!

It was a wonderful time spent with family and I loved it! The weather was wonderful and the food was even better (although I have a few unwanted pounds to shed now probably!) Too bad St. Louis isn't warm yet! It would certainly make it easier to return!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

My grandma



Last night, I received a phone call from my parents while in the middle of shopping in Target and received the news that my grandma has colon cancer. I knew she wasn't feeling well and was (trying to) preparing myself for this moment, but it turns out you can't really prepare yourself.

I cried for a minute and then called to talk to her personally. I have to say that she is so lucky (potentially) because it was found early (so early that she may not even have chemo). She will be getting a laproscopic cholectomy in two weeks in which they will not only remove the section of the colon where the tumor resides, but taking some lymph nodes around the area as well to see if there's any cancerous cells. After that, they will be able to stage the cancer apropriately and determine whether they need to go forward with chemo based on if it's in the lymph nodes.

In the meantime, she holding up pretty well with this new diagnosis. My stepmom (who I think is amazing for doing this) is planning to go to Kansas and spend the 3 weeks with my grandparents while she gets the surgery done and recovers. My grandma is also the caregiver for my grandpa so it definitely takes some load off of them while my grandma recuperates.

In the meantime, keep her and my family in your prayers for God's comfort and strength as we deal with this day by day...