My mom's health

 I haven't written much about my mom and her health.  We learned in the spring that my mother has a cancerous tumor on her kidney.  The surgery had been planned in June to remove the tumor, although the doctor had stated in April he was completely fine with waiting until fall if she had big summer plans she didn't want to miss.  Because my work schedule is more flexible in the summer, Mom opted for surgery as soon as scheduled.

The afternoon before we left for vacation, Mom suffered what was thought to be a heart-attack.  I phrase it that way because while most cardiologists agree, there is one that does not.  She feels it was a "heart event".  My family, including my mother, assured me that we should go ahead and take our vacation.  The surgery for the kidney was scheduled for the week we returned.  The morning of the scheduled surgery, Mom received a phone call that the surgeon was not comfortable performing surgery on Mom.  Because he had been comfortable waiting in the first place, he felt it would better to wait, and even to do another scan before scheduling surgery at any point.  That was the plan.

Last Sunday night at 11:30 the phone rang.  Mom was asking if Catherine was with us.  When I replied that she was, Mom said that she needed Catherine due to a health issue.  At first I thought she wanted Catherine to take care of her given the nursing background, but soon I realized that Mom was heading to the hospital and Mom wanted Catherine to take care of the dogs.  I decided I was driving up because not only did I not want Catherine driving by herself that late at night, Mom needed someone at the hospital with her and my sister couldn't be reached.  I made the trip up and got to the hospital about 1AM.  At 6:30 mom was finally admitted and I made the drive home, getting home about 8AM, having been up for 24 hours at that point.  Andrew made a trip up mid-afternoon to retrieve Catherine.

Mom was released later that day.  There is agreement that there definitely is a heart issue, but there is still uncertainly what is happening.  Follow up appointments are in the future, and any prayers are appreciated!