overwhelmed

That would be how I felt for at least a portion of today. Have you ever heard the phrase, "when it rains, it pours"? Well, it certainly seems to apply at the moment.

I haven't mentioned this on here yet, mostly because I'm not entirely sure how to put what all I'm feeling into words. A few weeks ago, Chris' mom went to the doctor for some major pain she was feeling in her back. After many tests, scans, etc., it was determined that she has cancer, again. Those of you who know us in "real life" know that Chris' mom is a breast cancer survivor of 7 years. There are still some unanswered questions, but what we do know is that she has Non-Hodgkin's B-cell Lymphoma. Today she had a test run to see if the cancer is in her bone marrow; we'll have the results back on Friday. The plan as of right now is for her to do two rounds of chemo, then have a scan to see if it's effective and have two more treatments and so on. She also had a mammogram today, and it appears that the spot that they found there is not in her lymph node, it's in her breast. Chris thinks the doctor will go over that on Friday too.

I have so many thoughts running through my head at all times. I try very hard to stay positive, but I have to be honest and admit that occasionally negative thoughts creep in. At those times I just stop thinking & start praying. Chris' mom is probably the strongest woman I have ever met. I am so blessed to have her as a mother-in-law. She loves Jonathan more that you could possibly imagine; he is her joy. I know that he'll be able to bring her little chunks of happiness throughout these difficult next few months.

So, not only do I have this to think about.... this morning Haley calls to tell me that they've taken my dad to the ER. He'd been up most of the night with spasms in his back & abdomen and was having trouble breathing. I guess at about 4:30am he decided to take a shower to see if the steam would help him breath. Mom had to help him out of the shower & get him dressed; he couldn't do it himself. Mom called 911 and the ambulance took him to the hospital; they arrived at about 6:00am. They did a CT scan and it appeared that is colon was enlarged or swollen, so they admitted him to keep an eye on it. Chris was home as he'd gone to the doctor with his mom this morning and was going with her again in the afternoon. He decided to take Jonathan with him so I could go to the hospital. While I was on my way there (it's about an hour from us) Haley calls & says they're moving Dad to ICU and they're going to have to do surgery, and possibly remove part of his colon. I kind of broke down at that point. Chris wanted me to turn around & get him so he could go with me; so I did that. Once we were on our way again, Haley called & said they'd decided to skip ICU & rush him to surgery. They thought he might be septic; it was pretty serious. I broke down again. I had calmed down by the time we got to the hospital and was just trying not to think negative thoughts. They had just taken him back when we got there and the surgery took a couple of hours. The doctor called Mom and it turns out he had a perforated ulcer.... which is WAY better than what they thought they were going to find in there. So, that's good news. Right now they have him in ICU on a respirator to make sure that he's getting enough oxygen. I guess that was a pretty major factor earlier in the day. Mom said it got really scary there for a bit with all of the doctors running around & checking levels. I guess Dad was shaking so bad from the pain that the bed was actually shaking. Part of me wishes I could've been there, but at the same time I'm glad I didn't see him like that. It was really weird when I went in to see him afterwards; he was totally out & the machine was breathing for him. I didn't like that at all. They're hoping to have him off the machine tomorrow and I guess they'll move him down to a regular room at some point. He'll be in the hospital for about 4-5 days. From what the doctors say, he should be fine.

If you're a praying person, would you please do so for our families. We have a lot going on right now; and we could use the prayers.