Summer's End

Well, this summer had a lot of happenings, and most of them not good. I actually can't believe it's over already, it went by in a flash, but honestly, I'm kind of glad. I feel like I really need to get back to some normalcy (sp), some structure,... some distraction??

To recap...

Scott's mom ended up in the hospital again, ended up there for nearly a month & needed surgery. She was taken off her her chemotherapy, and put on hospice, and other than that, has been left to wonder how much time she has left. Things really looked like she wouldn't make it beyond those first 2-3 weeks home, but once the poisons from the chemo had finally worked their way out of her body, she really perked up & surprised everybody. Now 2 1/2 months later, she's still here and feeling rather well. She can tell the cancer is continuing to close in on her, she tells me it's getting harder to breathe, but she has her color, she doesn't look so thin & frail as she did initially out of the hospital, and she's happy. So, even though we have no idea whether she'll still be here next week or next month,... we're just thankful for the extra time we have. Extra time we were sure we wouldn't have, but do.

The end of June, Scott had an accident and broke his foot/ankle in three places requiring him to have surgery and both pins & a screw put in, plus almost 2 months worth of time at home. He's out of his cast and in a walking cast now,... still has to take things as they come, and is in frequent pain, but he's managing. He had to miss his appt at the sleep lab (orig. sched. for July 2nd) because of the whole bloodclot scare/ER visit mayhem the same night, and wasn't able to get rescheduled until the 27th of THIS month, but they had a cancelation the other night, and called him in for it. It didn't pan out,.. he had the WORST technician, and the equipment apparently stopped working about three hours in,... then for some reason they waited until 4:00 AM to wake him up and tell him so he could go home. Because he went in to fill in the cancelation, he lost his appt. for the 27th now, too, and they are looking at possibly not having another opening until sometime in December. WTH?? Hopefully, he will get in sooner,.. on another cancelation, and he has filed a complaint on the technician to hopefully ensure he won't have him again. It's a long, irritating story so I'm not going to go there.

Let's see, what else? Oh, one of my very dear friends found out she has cancer. She had been trying to get her doctor to listen to her for a year, but was ignored,... turns out she has bone cancer with secondary breast cancer. The cancer has spread all throughout her spine, and even deteriorated one vertebrae to the point that it collapsed, literally breaking her back. Surgery repaired it, and thank goodness it collapsed in on itself from the top, and not the bottom of the vertebrae, or else it would have severed her spinal cord, and paralyzed her. Had she been listened to a year ago, her survival rate would have been 95%, but now is basically zero. All they can do is fight to slow it down, and give her as much time as possible. She's a fighter though, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she gave us the same kind of display that Scott's mom has, and surpass all their darn statistics!

And as if their family doesn't have enough to swallow, their oldest son (13) fell 20 feet out of a tree last week. He broke both arms and ruptured a disk in his back that required surgery, and has tree rash up & down his body & face. But other than those things, he's going to be alright.

An old friend's dad only has a few more months to live according to the doctor regarding his cancer, and another old friend's mom passed away this summer from cancer.................... I hate how commonplace that word has become.

There have been many highs & lows this summer,.... the highs just simple pleasures like going to the fairs & camping, and the lows, watching too many loved ones go through great strides of pain & anguish....... Wish I could say our summer was better, but you know what? Regardless of all this,.. it really could be so much worse, and so I am thankful for all the little things,.. all the little things, and a few pretty cool miracles, too.