Waiting

On January 11 – exactly one year after Mom’s wonderfully successful surgery, she received word that her blood counts indicate that the pancreatic cancer is reasserting itself.  CA 19.9 is a

Mom has a CT scan scheduled for Wednesday, and she has a doctor’s appointment with her oncologist, Dr. Michael Frontiera on Thursday.

** NOTE: I did not publish this note until after my mom’s passing.  The tumor marker CA 19.9 is not really a diagnostic tool, and Mom chose not to share with almost everyone that the number was going up.

She told me while the two of us were shopping the after Christmas sales at JC Penny’s.  After telling me, she asked if I wanted to go to the JC Penny’s photo studio to get a photo of the two of us.  My heart broke.  And I declined the photo offer.  And hugged I her and told her it would be alright.  And then we continued shopping.