Tis but a scratch

Tis but a scratch...just a flesh wound.

After a month of worry, praying, treating and looking, the final word came in today. The spot in Pam's mouth that a biopsy was taken from a week ago is most likely caused by tamoxifan and the doctor believes over time it will heal. It is a big answer to prayer that it is not cancerous and we are thankful for all of those who submitted them on Pam's behalf.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Have a blessed Christmas. See you here?

almost crossed that bridge

Around three weeks ago Pam was on cruise control, kind of postponing any thoughts about her illness and the next steps until after the holidays. That is when the little mouth "irregularity" showed up and suddenly there was another bridge to cross. Recap...off to an oral surgeon, treated as a wound for the past two weeks, scheduled to be looked at at a follow up visit today, the 8th. Pam had monitored it daily. I looked at it almost every day and to my untrained eye it seemed like some days it was healing and others it wasn't. Odd. I really thought that the surgeon would look at it and say, "It's healing slowly, but nicely." (Here is a pic of "it" from today if you dare.)

Once in the office it was one of those moments like I mentioned in a previous post. You could tell by his reactions and lack of words that he wasn't going to brush it off. Rather, he looked at it intently, sat down and said, "I still don't think this could be related to your cancer but..." In the end, Pam actually got what she wanted from todays visit. A biopsy. We have to wait until next Monday or Tuesday for the Univ. of Kentucky pathology people to decide what it is. Hoping it is a nothing something. At least we are closer to knowing.

There were positives from the past couple of days. We finally saw our first snow yesterday. Who doesn't love snow? We have never had to drive so far for a doctor. It takes just over an hour door to door. We actually had a nice drive with time to talk today. Granted, a lot of our talk centered around cancer and friends with cancer and even talking about talking about cancer. But we also talked about Randy's blog and the writings it contains (and how dumb I feel by comparison), faith, prayer, and an assortment of other things. We saw a beautiful 10 point buck prancing along a field parallel to I-74. My mind wandered off a moment or two and thought about the temperature, 32 degrees. Is that the temperature that water freezes and ice thaws? Can those two things happen at the same time? I need to check Randy's blog under the category - science - and see if he ever explained that one.

Then this evening we enjoyed some more rain. I got to go grocery shopping. Erin pulled another tooth out of her mouth. The kids found a surprise in their stockings (and you are the benefactor of that stocking stuffer if you click here ... if any of the videos stick, bump the slide next to the play button slightly). I burned a frozen pizza. Fun night. Pam is actually in good spirits even though she spent yet another rainy cold day, getting another biopsy (we have lost count of how many times we have done this, and seriously, 90% of her medical events have occurred in bad weather...Mike knows what I am talking about...a link to his incredible story will someday show up on this blog...right Mike?) We laughed a lot tonight.

We are blessed. Thanks for the prayers. If you can keep submitting them a bit longer we'd appreciate it.

downer family

Read a post or two on this blog and you might walk away thinking "what a downer." We know what club we are in and we just have to embrace it. Thanks for coming down with us.