Update: Life, Surgery, Cancer

It's been a really long time since I posted. It was never my intention to take such a long time off from my blog, but here we are in October and I haven't posted since the end of April.

Those of you that are friends or family are probably aware of what all has gone on in the past few months, but I wanted to give an update and catch everyone up to speed.

This past year has been one for the books. It seems like it has been one thing after the other. The only thing that has kept me from losing my head or crawling into a hole to hide has been the Lord. He has sustained me and my family in ways that I can't explain. There has been peace in times I never thought I'd have it, and comfort that only comes from Him.

So just to recap; Last August 31st, my grandfather passed away from a massive stroke. A little over three months later my other grandfather passed away. Then my grandmother passed away in April of this year. So, in a little over seven months, I lost three of my four grandparents.

After my grandmother passed away in April, once things settled down a little, it was the end of the school year. Things were really busy, and frankly, I just didn't feel like posting anything or being creative. That's when I decided to take the summer off from blogging, fully intending to start back after school started back.

Surgery
That brings me to my surgery. I had a major surgery (more about that later) on August 15th.  While they were in there, they found a hiatal hernia and repaired it as well. So instead of having maybe a couple of weeks of down time, I ended up having to take it easy for around five weeks. I was in a lot of pain and didn't have a lot of energy. Finally, around four weeks out my pain went away and I started getting my energy back. I'm seven weeks out now and feel great. Recovery took longer than I expected, but I'm doing great now.

Cancer
Some of you may remember me posting about my mom's cancer a few months ago. She has a rare form of lymphoma called Follicular Mycosis Fungoides, which is a cancer of the hair follicles. She's had it for four years or so maybe. Around a month ago, she called and told me and my brother that she needed to talk to us. She drove down and we met at my house. She told us that she had had a PET scan and that it showed cancer in many parts of her body. It's in her lungs, liver, chest, spine, spleen, leg, arm, bones, jaw, and cheek. She also has bone lesions on her back, ribs, and hip.

I was not expecting to hear this news. She had managed her cancer for a while, but now it seems it's just taking over. We meet with her oncologist tomorrow to find out if all of those spots are metastisization of her current cancer, or if it's a secondary lymphoma in addition to what she already has. We'll also know more about treatment options depending on the results, although, my mom doesn't want to do chemo.

I'd really appreciate prayers for her and for our family as we continue to walk through this. I'll update as soon as I know something.

Thanks in advance for your prayers and support!