Hello peeps,

Well, if isn't a doggone Christmas miracle, that"s what it is a great big ol' Christmas miracle. That is, if you can have a good ol' fashioned Christmas miracle in March. What the hell it's my blog and I can have Christmas when ever I damn well please. And what just may that miracle be? The answer would of course be that, I' m actually posting something to this blog. As life usually does, it has tangled me up in a big ol' knot. (BTW, I have no idea why I find it necessary to use the abbreviation of the word old but maybe I'm just in one of those good ol' boys state of mind. Anyway moving on...) So, back to life tangling me up in a big ol' ball. Life has indeed tangled me up and because of it, along with some just good ol' fashioned laziness, I have been severely short in the area of blog posts. I even missed the very last 12 of 12 and I loved the 12 of 12 posts. I do have, even though I don't need one, but I do have some good reasons for not posting and they included everything from work commitments to important family matters. At the end of the day the biggest web tangled bit is a family matter, which revolves around my mother's cancer.

Just before Christmas I called my mum to check-in with her to see what was new on her end of the world and also to hear what the families" Christmas plans were and what specifically she was doing for Christmas. I worry about my mum, especially since dad passed away in 2006. I know mum is a strong women and that she can take care of herself but I know, through personal experience, what it is like to suddenly find yourself all alone after your partner-in-life passes away. And it is especially hard during the holidays after the loss of your spouse. Anyway, I thought all I was going to do is get an update on the holiday plans instead I got an ear full, which later became a head full, of my mum telling me that her cancer had spread to her lungs. Mum had a fairly large melanoma removed in 2006 and for all concerns she had nothing else to worry about, boy were we wrong.

So since my last post, that particular part of my life (that being mum's cancer) has taken over my every thought and has made life extremely difficult trying to find enough time to spend with my mum. The biggest problem is of course approximation. With mum living on one side of the world and me on the other, it makes it really hard to get over there to be with one another. It's not like I can just call her in the morning and ask her if she would like to meet me for lunch somewhere, because no matter how hard we try or how much we would love to have lunch with each other, it's just not going to happen. So what to do? Mum was offered a cancer treatment, actually the only one of two treatments available, that she can take to help slow the cancer's progression. Mum's doctor has been very specific in telling her that this treatment is not a cure and for that matter there is no cure for her type of cancer period. Saying all of that I decided that I needed/wanted to be with my mum whilst she went/is going through this treatment. The actual treatment consists of four individual IV infusions over the course of twelve weeks, one infusion every 3 weeks.

After talking to my boss I was able to arrange some time off to fly back to the states to see my mum and to help her in anyway I can during the time that I am here. I also wanted to be able to give my big brother a small break from helping my mum whilst I am here. Mum is handling the treatments and more importantly the side effects from the treatments, pretty good so far. This specific treatment is not the traditional chemo because traditional chemo does not work on the type of cancer mum is currently battling. In fact as far as mum's treatment goes this is her only option and once these four doses are done and after she has a new PET scan to see if the treatments had any affect on the spots on her lungs and to make sure the cancer has not spread they docotor will let her know if she can have another round of the treatments. If they find she needs the treatment again she can have one more set of four infusions and then that"s it she can't have any more. It should be noted that each one of her infusions cost $30,000. That's right Thirty Thousand dollars for a grand total of $120,000. We have no idea how much mum's insurance is going to pay and how much they are going to expect her to pay. We will,cross that bridge when we get there. We will just take this one thing/day at a time. The biggest problem is that I am going to have to go back home and go back to work soon. My boss/work has been extremely generous letting me have all of this time off especially seeing that I have actually only worked there for 2 months so far. But I need to go back shortly before they give my job away. I'm not completely sure when I have to leave I'm just waiting on an email from my boss.

That kind of sums up what's happening in my life but I just wanted to catch up with everyone. I also wanted to mention that I am going to take part in a shirt around the world for charity event started by one of my blogger friends. This blogger actually makes his own Hawaiian print shirts and I have to say he makes some really cool shirts. He has a real knack when it come to choosing the fabric he uses to make the shirts. So, I am apparently up next to receive the shirt. All I have to do is take a picture with me wearing the shirt, then post the picture on this blog.I will then post the shirt on to the next person in line to wear the shirt. So they can do the same thing on so on. 30 people have already taken part in this little project and as an added bonus there will be donations made to various charities for every person who wears the shirt. If my calculations are correct close to $3,000 has been donated. Now that, is a very special Hawaiian shirt and I'm happy to be a part of the fun.

That's all for now, just be on the look out for pictures of me and the shirt. I'm sure I will look stunning in the shirt and I'm even more sure that by the time the shirt arrives I will also have something else to write on this blog especially some good new about mum. Fingers crossed... Until then take care and be safe...