My experience with cancer has often been that the disease itself is inconsequential to the destruction that the body endures from the residual side-effects of treatment.

It's a catch-22, really.

In order to cure the cancer, you have to treat the disease-- but the treatment takes such a toll on the body that survivors often have a hard time bouncing back...so is the case with mom.

Let me back up. From logging in tonight, I've learned that the last time we were here was July. In fact, it's the last time I've darkened the door around these parts. That's because July was really the last time we've had to come here. Not because we want to keep you in the dark. We don't. But because life has been very, overly, thankfully...normal. So normal, in fact, that last month Mandy & I tagged along on a whirlwind trip to New York with mom and one of her besties. It was a blast, and I'll share more about that later-- but that's honestly how good life has been. We visit the oncologist for a three-month check up. he tells us all is well. life proceeds as normal.

But a couple of months ago, our normalcy was thrown a small hitch when mom started struggling with regular pain in her left leg. An MRI put us back on the radar when the radiologist may or may not have jumped the gun with the worst case scenario-- telling mom he thought cancer in her spine was the likely culprit. After a little research, and a frantic trip to the oncologist-- cancer was ruled out as the suspect, but we've been chasing the source ever since.

Most recently, mom has taken a few pretty big falls both at home & in parking lots where more than just her pride was bruised. Her latest fall in New York was the catalyst for getting to the bottom of what is causing both the pain in her leg and being unsteady on her feet. In an attempt to ease the pain at night, she's resulted to sleeping in a recliner-- which alleviates the pain and helps her to get a decent night's rest. But where palliative care seemed to have helped in the past-- it's starting to provide almost no relief for the growing pain in her leg.

All of those factors drove our worry train back to the neurologist, yesterday. The increased leg pain and frequent falling created a fearful situation, as we were certain cancer was quickly spreading through her spine. Let me stop that crazy train here-- it hasn't. In fact, the MRI showed that the cancer is the least of our worries in this ordeal. And since we're holding on to any good news, there it was-- don't blink or you're likely to miss it.

Here's the flip side of that coin-- mom needs extensive spine surgery; a surgery that would involve fusing her spine together in three places. Her spine has both degenerated and slipped, putting excessive pressure on her spinal cord and causing radiating pain down her leg. Here's where the catch-22 of cancer makes all of this muddy. For your average 'healthy' person, this surgery is intense, but has a turn-around time of roughly 6-weeks. Mom has congestive heart failure from chemotherapy, so her circumstance is a little more precarious than the typical situation-- making any surgery harder to navigate.

So where do we go from here? We're starting by getting a second opinion. Yesterday's neurosurgeon felt 100% certain that this particular surgery was the only option to fix the problem, or keep it from worsening to the point of a major catastrophe. While we're sure he's right-- we want to make sure that all options are exhausted before making this the final stop. In the next few weeks, we'll meet with an additional neurologist and all of mom's doctors to devise a plan. At the rate that her pain has increased, we're getting a pretty quick move on things in order to stay ahead of the game and avoid the chance that mom might break any bones with her next fall.

Hopefully we'll know more in the next few weeks, and can update as the muddied-water begins to clear. Please continue to pray for guidance & protection for mom. We hold fast to the promise that the Lord has made to us-- certain that there is a plan and a purpose for this chapter in our lives.