Everywhere around the World, I'm Coming to America!

Well, it looks like I will probably be going home for the month of August. To fully understand why I'm doing this, I need to make this post about my mother. I'm thinking that lots of you already know this story (you people can skip ahead to the *), but if you don't know, here's the history...

Back in January, my mother was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. The initial news was good. The tumor was small and in a place where they could remove it. Well, nearly...the doctors wanted to do some rounds of chemo and radiation to shrink it even more and move it away from an important vein. After that, she would have the surgery and, poof!, everything would be better. This was all supposed to be done before I left for France.

Fast forward to a couple weeks before the surgery and a few weeks before my departure. It turns out that instead of shrinking like a normal tumor, my mom's tumor grew. It got to the point where they couldn't operate on it. They basically said that she would go through more chemo, and hopefully the tumor would shrink...but doubtful.

A few months later, and the tumor did shrink! My mom started feeling much better and everything began looking much better. Then, a few weeks ago, she started to feel ill again. While I was in Paris last week, she sent me an email saying that she's actually been in the hospital for the last few days because of the pain. While there, she met with the doctor who would be doing the surgery. He said that this new pain doesn't have to do with the cancer. He also said that he would like to go ahead and have the surgery in about 3-4weeks.

* That's where I come in. It is a big deal for me (and my mom) to be home for the surgery. Thankfully, before I left, my grandma offered to buy me a plane ticket home if the surgery happened while I'm away. So, it looks like I'll be coming home in a couple weeks to be there for my mom and help with the recovery!

I'm actually really looking forward to coming back. While being over here, I've realized just how much my friends and family mean to me. I can't wait to see them again and the things that I miss dearly. It will also be nice to have a taste of American things again.

Even though this is going to be a risky surgery, I have complete faith in this doctor. He's supposed to be one of the best, and I'm sure that he wouldn't be doing it if he wasn't confident he could be successful. This is really good news that she gets to have the surgery. I'm very happy for her.

So...for all you Americans out there, I'll see you soon!