Scan Results & Mackinac Island

Hello, Everyone! Today Mom and I went to see the doctor to get an assessment of mom's scan results. You may remember that a month ago, the doctor sent my mom a note telling her that good news - she had no new cancer growth! Which excited us when we weren't sure what it really meant. So today we were able to get some direction.

Essentially, mom's cancer has not spread at all thanks to the chemo. We already knew this, but what he did reveal to us is that this is not common. Most patients with Cholangio Carcinoma don't respond to treatment which is why the statistics of living beyond 6-12 months is so low. He recently had one patient that didn't live past a month after diagnosis because his cancer spread so quickly. Mom's cancer looks to be one that is not only slow growing but also responsive to treatment. In the last 4 months, Mom's cancer has not grown even one centimeter. This is GREAT news! The doctor still wouldn't tell us how long he thinks Mom has, but did say that her chances to live longer than most are greatly increased.

Even with all of this great news ... Mom is still pretty weak from chemo and nauseous most of the time. The pain in her side is starting to come back and most days she feels best when she is at home resting or sitting on my front porch resting to enjoy the outdoors.

I know it's been forever since I've provided an update, but at this point we are just trying to adjust to our new normal. I've noticed a lot of traffic on this blog recently, and I'm sure it's because you are checking back to see any updates. Given that I may not update this blog quite as often, I encourage you to sign up to receive email updates so that you don't feel you've missed anything. The email sign-up is on the side of the page ---->

These days, Melissa, her girls, and I try to spend as much time as we can with Mom ... and Mom is trying to prepare for her passing and spend time with loved ones. We appreciate your patience with us as our time is being stretched. Given that we have NO idea how long we have mom with us, we are trying to balance work, time as a family, other commitments ... and then squeezing in friends when we can. If you could please be praying that we figure out balance. And that we enjoy each moment that we can together.

Speaking of enjoying time together ... I took Mom on a surprise mini-vacation to ... Mackinac Island! It was a 7 hour trip there where we spent 2.5 glorious days! I'll let the photos speak for themselves!

We're back from Florida!

I know I'm way overdue on giving an update on the Florida trip - it was nothing short of perfect! We had 10 days together as a family to relax and take a break from life ... chemo ... work ... get-togethers ...  commitments ... all of those things that tend to get in the way of our ability to spend the intentional time we'd like with our mom.

For the most part, we stayed near Sarasota on Longboat Key - swimming in the pool, reading books, walking to the beach, and visiting local restaurants. But we did spend 3 days at Disney World at the Saratoga Springs Resort swimming in the pool, zipping down water slides, watching a movie under the stars, and spending a day at Magic Kingdom.

The weather was perfect. I know the weather back home in Indy was a cool 60's and 70's. The cooler weather translated in Florida to a breezy 80's which was perfect for the beach and the pool. Leading up to Disney World we were worried that the heat would be unbearable for Mom, but instead it was a very cloudy day with only occasional showers making it a rather cool day at the park! Mom had a lot of strength on this trip given that she was able to take 2 weeks off from chemo. It was such a blessing because it felt like we had our beloved Mom back!

I wanted to thank all of you one more time for your amazing donations to make this trip a reality. We were so thrilled to have the opportunity to take this trip - it almost didn't seem right that we couldn't take all of you with us. But from the bottom of our hearts - thank you!

I'll stop talking here and let the photos speak for themselves.

Disney

Longboat Key

Short clip of the girls on the beach>>