great news folks

Today started out pretty miserable. My mom was feeling even worse and wasn't eating/drinking more than the water needed to take medicine. We went to Target to try and distract her and I found an awesome new purse. It took hours of phone calls, but we finally got lab results. My mom had a "small hematoma." She went back to the hospital and had a hematoma the size of a baby drained. She is feeling 10 million times better. Her back is better and the pressure is gone. She is eating and even felt well enough to visit our neighbors at Primary Children's.

I almost forgot the best part of all. Pathology reports came back clean. There is no more cancer. My mom doesn't need chemo or radiation!

 

adios amigo

I headed back to Provo tonight. My mom isn't feeling super duper, so I'm heading back tomorrow after I take a midterm. Before I drove back, I stopped to say good bye to one of my good friends. Matt will be set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints tomorrow and he will enter the Missionary Training Center on Wednesday. Because of the recent increase in the number of missionaries due to the age requirements, his date has been pushed back, and you can tell he is ready to be out there sharing the gospel. Matt will spend a few weeks in Provo training, 3 minutes from my apartment, before he leaves to serve the people of Mexico.

the one where she comes home!

My mom was doing really well until super early this morning. Ever since then, she's been in much more pain. Drinking the contrast for the CT scan yesterday created a lot of pressure that hasn't gone away. She had a fever this morning, and they thought about keeping her an extra day, but she ended up getting to come home tonight. She is still nauseated and groggy, but hopefully this will be the worst part.  

 

 

sleeping in a hospital bed

I drove to the hospital after work. They did an ultrasound and a CT because of a pain in my mom's leg. The doctors are being cautious about blood clots since my grandma and I have both had them. My dad will have to give my mom blood thinning shots for 4 weeks after she comes home. The tests came back negative for blood clots. We think a nerve was inflamed during surgery, causing the pain she feels now. I am going to sleep at the hospital tonight so my dad can go home to see the kiddos and sleep in his own bed. My mom is groggy from all the drugs, but she doesn't have pain anywhere other than her leg.  

round two

My mom's second surgery was today. It was a long day, but she seems to be doing pretty well. Lymph nodes were removed first and sent to pathology. The reports came back normal, so they were able to complete the surgery and the doctor was pleased with how everything went. The pathology reports we will get next week will tell us if chemo or radiation are necessary. We are certainly hoping for the best. Since I had to be in Provo today, I tried hard to stay busy. I had a pretty incredible experience when taking a test for my Book of Mormon class. I felt really good about the whole test, except for one question: "What are 4 lessons we can learn from Alma 31 and apply to our lives. Be specific and use examples in context."Sorry. I don't have a summary of every chapter in the Book of Mormon memorized. I skipped the question and finished the rest of the test, hoping something would come to me. Every other question was answered, but still I had no idea what to write. After a few minutes, I decided just to start writing generic principles found all over the Book of Mormon. Halfway through, I crossed everything out and started over. My brain didn't know what to write, but my hand sure did. I turned in my test and pulled out my phone. Sure enough, I had written exactly what is found in Alma 31.