Grandma

I've been a blogslacker lately. I have good reasons and bad reasons. I've been getting caught up on Battlestar Galactica and 24, I've been re-reading the Mistborn books, and I'm developing a Facebook addiction that gets me into trouble with my wife from time to time when she starts to feel neglected. Depending on your perspective, those reasons are some combination of good and bad. The main reason I haven't done much blogging lately, though, is that we've been spending a lot of our time cheering for Darlene's mom. I've dropped some hints about her status from time to time, but today things went a long way towards getting cleared up, so I thought the time was right to sit and write about it.

A few weeks ago she had a biopsy run on some tissue in her throat. She had been complaining of strep-like symptoms but antibiotics weren't doing anything so the doctor ordered more tests. The biopsy turned up some malignant tissue in the area around her tonsil. We were told it was a stage one carcinoma and low-grade worrying began. An MRI was scheduled a couple of weeks ago but was unable to be completed due to her claustrophobia. She just couldn't bring herself to get into the MRI tube. It was too tight. She tried hard, though, and we were proud of her. They were able to run a CAT scan last Monday and the results came back last Friday.

The news was about the best we could have hoped for. The cancer is apparently confined to one of her tonsils, although there is a lymph node they're a little suspicious of. We found out today that they've scheduled her for surgery on February 24th to remove the tonsil and the lymph node (which they will immediately biopsy). She will require five weeks of radiation treatment--not chemo, just radiation. Due to her age and the location of the cancer they want to make sure the risk of spread is lessened as much as possible. We're all relieved the news was good and everyone is making plans to be at her side when she comes out of surgery on the 24th.

She's had a lot of prayers go up on her behalf--three churches that I know of have her on their prayer lists, and we've been sending them up every chance we get--but we'll gladly take more. If you're the praying kind, remember her in your prayers over the next couple of weeks as she prepares for her surgery. If you're not the praying type, send some good thoughts or healing energy, or whatever support you can muster. We'll take all the help and positivity we can get. We love you, Grandma!

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