Made a new blog post. [link]

Just turned in my final research paper for grad school. Holy shit y'all I actually did it.

Had to take Jacqueline to the ER with acute abdominal pain.

We were looking at an 8 hour wait until she pinged her boss. It helps to have a Division Chief boss at the hospital where you're being seen.

Anyway, she's had her bloodwork (she's not pregnant!). No fever.

She's in the queue to get a CAT scan.

Could be kidney stones. Could be pancreatis. IDK.

Not serious -ma is welcome.

I'm back at home waiting to see if I need to bring her anything for an overnight. Matilda is with Emmett.

eta: She's had her scan. Waiting to hear if she's coming home or staying overnight.

She’s admitted at the hospital and has received pain medication. But not a room.

She’s staying overnight in the hallway.

She has colon cancer.

Tomorrow we meet with oncologists and try to get a biopsy during Xmas week.

For those of you who may not see updates on FB: My friend was able to go with me to meet the new surgeon. She and I were both impressed by the doctor & her staff. Still don't have a surgery date, but now I know the *plan* and I have good *information*, both of which make me feel better. So, a couple more scans in the meanwhile, then surgery probably in early to mid-February.

Mom's finally seeing a podiatrist tomorrow. Hope he can help, and that we could get our groove back.

I'm scheduled for breast reduction surgery tomorrow, in hopes of mitigating my chronic upper back, neck, and shoulder pain. It should be pretty routine, as surgeries go, though I'm still feeling a bit nervous, since that still means going under anesthesia and all.

Surgery went smoothly, and I've been home since a bit before noon yesterday. Mostly I'm very tired and very sore, though the pain med rotation is keeping it manageable.

I think I'm overdue for a check in, so: my day-to-day continues about the same - kinda sore, really tired most of the time. I had a cystoscopy (scope of the bladder) last week because the gyn oncologist was concerned that the bladder might have been compromised due to proximity to the uterus/vagina/et al. Finally some good news - no sign of cancer in the bladder! I have another colonoscopy scheduled next Friday (3/3), and that will hopefully be the last test before the surgery. They assure me that they've been working on scheduling the surgery all along (5 weeks now), it's just tricky because I'm up to 3 different surgeons now (gastro-intestinal oncologist, gynecological oncologist, plastic surgeon).

So, unless something miraculous happens between now & the surgery, most of my colon, rectum, etc., is going and my ostomy becomes permanent. Hysterectomy (incl ovaries, etc.), plus (poss TMI) some of the vaginal wall that has been compromised (one of the plastic surgeon's jobs is determining how much to rebuild - or not) Plus, they want to take out the track that my surgical drain has been sitting in all this time (for fear that the material traveling through it was cancerous and they don't want to risk "cancer seeding", and the plastic surgeon will also have to re-build/re-create that area.

So I anticipate a tougher recovery than the first surgery, but they still think they can get all of the cancer, so there's light at the end of this (long, shitty) tunnel.

OMG, finally, a date for surgery! Friday, March 31!