Getting Home

We got mom and dad home. Before we left, we had some of the other missionaries and a bunch of kids from Mom and Dad's ward come over and completely clean all of Mom & Dad's place. They were fantastic and really would not have been able to do it without them. We also were able to ship 3 boxes back home through Fed-Ex at 60% off through the religion department. We should get those today and it was really cheap.

Then came the airport...between the 3 of us we had 6 checked suitcases all in the 50 - 51 pound range (the guy helping us let us have the extra pound). 3 carry on suitcases, 3 carry on bags and moms Ukulele. We had a lot of STUFF. We did curbside check in and the guy that helped us was awesome, let us shift everything around to keep all the bags at the weight we needed. He also got us a cart to take are carry on bags. The people at the security gate helped us get everything through. Even allowed mom to carry on a couple Ensures for medical use. At the gate they let us do pre boarding and changed our seats so that I could sit with them. Anyway EVERYTHING went better then I could have ever imagined.

Mom went to the doctor yesterday. Great news is that it hasn't spread. (or maybe it had but Pac Man did his job ) She will meet with the specialist on Monday to discuss our next steps. Dr. Potter (our family doctor) said that since it is a fairly large tumor he would think that they would want to do chemo before surgery to try to shrink it. The surgery is pretty major but definitely necessary.

Some other good news is that they ran some tests and her nutrient levels are pretty darn close to normal. Mom has been really good about trying to eat each day as much as she can. Even after she will throw something up she goes back and tries again. The doctor was really surprised. She has been drinking Ensure and told us to have her drink something that has a higher level of protein so we got that for her yesterday. He also told her to eat baby food (stage 3). We bought her some graduate stuff so that when she gets bigger she will have something to look forward to.

I know this isn't what any of us wanted but it is what we have before us. If we ever try to discuss what would have happened if we had ....., Mom always stop us and says, "Well we didn't so let's not go there." She still is a great example of always moving forward and looking at all the blessings we have, even when she has a legitimate excuse to complain.

I love you all and Happy New Year!!!!

Kim