It's my party

And I'll cry if I want too.
Pity party alert! When I'm stuck in a pity party with a good cry I always think of this song. I associate it with a movie from my childhood. Funny thing is that I actually think of the wrong movie. For some reason I think of 'My Girl' but its really from  'Problem Child'.

Anyways... What's really on my mind is my mom.

Mom with lil LT a few hours after LT was born

My mom is an amazing woman! We have been through a lot in the last few years and she has always been so strong. Now that I am a mother myself, I have a better appreciation for everything she has done for her family. Unfortunately at the beginning of the month mom was diagnosed with cancer. It started with a routine check up at the doctor where she realized she has not had a colonoscopy. Recommendations are to have one at the age of 50, mom is 56.  So they scheduled a colonoscopy and since I was still on maternity leave, lil LT and I made the trip to take mom to her procedure. She needed a driver due to the meds they used anyways. Well right away the doc said he saw a polyp that he thought looked cancerous. They took a biopsy and would call with the results. Meanwhile they scheduled an appointment with an Oncologist for the next week anyway. 
Sure enough the biopsy came back cancerous. The next week the Oncologist told us that it was an adenocarcinoma and diagnosed her with rectal cancer. He had asked if she had any symptoms or history that could contribute to the diagnosis. My mom is a very healthy person and takes good care of herself. She eats well and exercises regularly. The only thing I could think of was the high level of stress she has been under due to the death of my father in December. Sure enough the doc said to not stress out about having high stress...If only it were that easy! So he told us he knew where it was and what the tumor was but he could not tell the stage of the tumor. And of course the procedure to determine how involved the tumor is has to be done in the cities. It surprised us that even with the large medical presence in town this was not available. But the way I see it, we want to best treatment so we want to see the beat docs.
This was scheduled for the next week so lil LT and I packed up again for a road trip. The doc in the cities also ordered a CT scan and this was done the Monday before our road trip. Mom had her endoscopic ultrasound and the doc was able to tell us right away that it was stage three involving at least 1 lymph node. He suggested chemo and radiation as the location would prove to be difficult to operate on. Mom had an appointment scheduled for the following Monday with her Oncologist at home so a treatment plan would be determined then.
Well at this appointment we learned that the CT scan showed lesions on mom's liver. What another shock! This is unknown if it is cause for concern or not so a PET scan was scheduled immediately for today. We are praying that it is just fatty tissue so we do not have to worry about it! If that is the case then mom will start treatment next week. A radiation walk through is Monday and chemo is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Mom said it's scheduled for 2 1/2 hours and predicted she will have lots of time sitting during her treatments. I told her she needs some good books to read!

So that's where we are now... (PS this was a fast post so I could get an update out, sorry if there are errors in spelling)