A couple months later and I'm back. I 'd thought about coming back and doing an update here on what was going on with my Mom from time to time, but things were going well. When she had a CAT scan in May, there was no sign of the cancer. Also no indication of it in her blood work.

She went in today for a CAT scan and the cancer is back. There is no sign of it on the CAT scan, however. She was in the hospital last week as she had some fluid build up on her lungs. I think they scanned the chest as well as the abdomen and found nothing. The blood work, however, shows that it is back. So, less than 4 months after completing chemotherapy, Mom is headed back for another course I am continuing to pray that it will knock the cancer into remission and keep it there.

I am EXTREMELY frustrated with the jackasses who call themselves medical professionals in this state. They know there is cancer, they just don't know where it is. Doesn't it make sense to know the source of the disease to help make some treatment determinations? I am going to suggest that she look at getting a different oncologist. I'd love it if she'd go to the Mayo Clinic to get checked out, but know that won't happen.

I'm again terrified that the chemo won't work. I know that eventually it won't, or there will be too much damage to her other organs from the chemo.

I suppose the good news here is that everything was caught earlier in the process, which means that there may be less of a fight to knock it out of her system. The better news is there was no doubt in her mind this time as to whether she should fight it or not. She was talking about doing more chemo. last weekend when she was here.

Just disheartening, especially since today is also Mom's birthday.

With all the kids going back to school, I started to think back to my first days of school. I remember my Mom picking me up on some days, on others I'd walk home with some classmates. I recall once I was angry with Mom about something so I told her I'd walk home. As soon as she drove off, I ran my little butt off the whole way home. Since she stopped at the post office, I thought I might actually catch up with her. Wasn't to be though. She was surprised I'd gotten home that quickly. All the activity took the anger out of me. Maybe I should have learned more from that. I think I ended up playing with my superhero action figures the rest of the afternoon (my kindergarten class was a half-day every other day affair).

I still recall the first figures I got: Batman and Joker I'd wanted Batman and Robin (of course!) but there was a screw up when the catalog order was placed (can't recall if it was Sears or Montgomery Ward, I think Sears). Mom ended up getting Robin ordered, so I soon had the dynamic duo and their most notorious foe. I would play for hours on end with those things, using old shoelaces for ropes for the heroes to swing from and tie up the villians. I think I went through two Batman figures, two Spiderman, two Hulk, three Superman (invulnerable my ass!), a couple Robin, two Aquaman, a Conan, a Riddler, a Penguin, a Joker, a Mr. Mytzplk, two Captain America, a Captain Kirk, a Spock, a Dr. McCoy ( - got to have heroes vs. villians vs. space explorers). I also (at one time or another) had the Batman motorcycle (with sidecar for Robin), the Spiderman car, and the Batmobile. I also got the Batcave playset for a birthday.

Okay, nice trip down memory lane. The cool thing is that Mom let me do my thing with those figures and she'd read me comic books to feed my brain with more ideas for adventures. I can recall several long car rides where Mom would be in the back seat with me on one side, Mark on the other, reading the newest "Batman Family" comic book. I remember liking it so much because it was a departure from what she normally read us for comic books (Richie Rich, Casper, and Archie).

I'm definitely rambling. Time to wrap up. Will be back, and much sooner than before.