Taking the bull by the horns...

Well, Mom and I went to the thoracic surgeon yesterday. She was fully convinced she was going to talk him into postphoning the procedure...She finally caved when he told her that if she waits, she could be dead in a year or two...That worked pretty well.

So, Mom is scheduled to have surgery on Thursday. She will be in ICU for a few days after surgery, and 4-5 days in the hospital in total. The Dr. said he will try to work in as small an area as possible, but he may have to remove a couple ribs...Yikes! She is just so tiny, and he needs to get in between her ribs to remove the lower lobe...Ugh...Sounds painful to me! But the surgery should last about an hour or so.

Mom is scared, as to be expected, but I think she knows she needs to get it taken care of. She goes for her pre-op blood work today.

She is worried about Dad, and how he will handle not seeing her for awhile. I told her we would do our best to keep him thinking she is just feeling under the weather...He doesn't have a good grasp on the concept of time anyway. I think he will be just fine.

He has been having some issues with the skin on his hands, arms and neck/shoulders. It starts as red bruising, almost like blood blisters, and then the skin splits, and he has an open skin ulcer. They cause him a lot of pain. It is difficult because he still is very cold, but now it hurts him to have the blankets on his hands. I have been working with the nurses and his doctors to try and find out why this has just recently started. He really has not had much change in his medication or anything, and it is not like he is really getting out of bed much to have people tugging on his skin or anything, so it is just a puzzle. We are researching side effects of his meds to see if we can find a connection.

We are going for a follow up visit with the radiation oncologist tomorrow...Maybe he will have some insight...:)

Anyway, 2009 is on it's way! And let's go Chargers in Pittsburgh...(S0rry Lvonne;...Oh, and Steph).

Much love!