Updates

Well, it's been a while since I made the time to post here. Lots has happened since September: being pregnant, dad was diagnosed with cancer (both parent's in one year, can you believe it??) and my aunt passed away.

Pregnancy is going fine. We'll find out what it is in 2 more weeks and hopefully I can keep updates going here. Baby is due at the end of April. I think it's a girl, but Scott's not so sure.

Dad found what turned out to be a tumor on his side a few months ago. Had it biopsied (sp?) and his doctors were unable to determine what kind of cancer it was. The way his doctor explained it, its like your driving on the freeway and you know that all of the things around you are cars (cancer). Usually they have labels or you can tell what kind they are by how they look. Dad's don't have labels and don't look like any of the usual cars you see on the road. He's been scanned and scoped from top to bottom and no other tumors were found (thank goodness). They took it out a few weeks ago and sent it to the national tumor registry to help get it diagnosed. We should be hearing this week or next what the final pathology report says. So far there are no plans for chemo or radiation. Depending on what the diagnosis is, they may just keep an eye on him and do regular scans and check-ups to see if anything else pops up. So, lots of hurry up and wait. I think we're all feeling optomistic at this point, but that may only be because we've had just enough time to relax and let our guard down. Hopefully everything turns out ok.

My Aunt Irene (mom's sister) had been diagnosed with breast cancer about 6 years ago and had been doing well since finishing treatment, etc. Unfortunately this year she began suffering from back and neck pain and found out too late that she had developed bone cancer in her spine. By the time they found it in September it had already spread throughout her body. She passed away in October about a week before dad had his surgery. Poor mom had to fly out for the funeral the day of his surgery. She and Andy barely got to see the surgeon and hear that dad had done fine and they got all of the tumor out and then they had to head off to the airport. This has all been really hard for her, with all of this on top of her own cancer diagnosis back in June) and I know we're all hoping that next year will be a quieter one.

So, there's my last two months (ugh). Being that Thanksgiving is coming up, in spite of all this, I know I still have a lot to be thankful for. Mom is healthy. My family is healthy. We all have jobs and the things we need. Things could be worse and I'm thankful they're not.