Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Things have been kinda hectic around here.

I went back to work, as previously announced, on August 24th. I’m very tired and sore, but coping. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things.

The kids went back to school on August 31st. This year, all three are in different schools…which makes drop offs and pick ups interesting (and hectic.) Luckily, at least Kenzie is bussed. Brian started high school, Sierra is in her last year of junior high, and Kenzie is in 1st grade.

The bad news? They finally figured out the problem with my mother-in-law. She was recently in the hospital, jaundiced again. Her stent in the bile duct was clogged again, and they did an endoscopy to replace it. When she was released, the hospital scheduled a follow-up with the gastroenterologist for her. Well, my husband left work early to join his parents at the doctor. They were initially shown into a normal exam room. The nurse came in, however, and suggested that they come sit in the doctor’s office instead. At this, my husband became suspicious. The doctor then revealed that while replacing the stent, he found an ulceration in her intestines. He decided to do a biopsy on it, and it came back malignant. But, the cancer originated in the pancreas, not the intestines. So he let them know she has advanced Pancreatic Cancer (Stage IV if the American Cancer Society’s staging chart is correct, showing any spread to surrounded organs.) Brian and I have suspected all along that she had Pancreatic Cancer, noticing all the signs. At least now we have a diagnosis, and the hemming and hawing of the doctors is finally over. (Sad that our sleepy local hospital found this, and not the bugger hospitals where they used to live.) She will be seeing an oncologist soon, and hopefully they can at least give her comfort measures if nothing else. She is actually back in the hospital again, this time with her blood sugar out of control. (The doctors, now knowing about the cancer, know that this is the reason her diabetes has been out of control and not anything specific that she is — or isn’t — doing.)