Update on Mom's condition; she is doing much better

I wanted to thank everyone for all of your prayers and positive thoughts concerning my Mom's health. A few months ago my mother was diagnosed with stage 3 endometrial cancer. It was necessary for her to have surgery to remove it and its only after surgery that doctor's can get a true sense of the actual stage of endometrial cancer.

Mom had her surgery about 2 weeks ago and is doing very well. She still has pain but that is expected. At the time of surgery the doctor was immediately able to tell us that there was no indication that the cancer had spread into her other organs or lymph nodes. It was very very good news for us because that meant she didn't have stage 3 cancer and the prognosis looks good.

We finally got the results of the biopsy back and its not the best news--however not completely unexpected. Mom will need to have cancer treatment and that is the state that we are at now; trying to decide which course of treatment she will take. I won't go into a lot of details, we have the information necessary to make a good decision but it's pretty standard to go through chemo/radiation after removal of cancer.

Yesterday I talked to her about cutting off her dreads. I know that a lot of people will read this and think well that is just hair and life is more important than the hair that grows on the top of your head. The hair doesn't drive your decision but it does effect your sense of helplessness and loss. Her hair goes down to her butt and its something that takes a great deal of effort to maintain and to keep looking as beautiful as hers does. She would twist them during a time after she had shoulder surgery and could barely lift her arm, and this literally takes hours. So her investment in her hair is pretty deep.

Mom broke her ankle 2 years ago. Dreads are even longer now.

I told mom that I'd cut them off and then shave her head for her. She just sighed and said okay and then she said, "I want it shaved because i don't want any kookoo beads!" (smile). Anyways, I'll be making some changes to my life so that I'm constantly available for these 12 weeks of treatment and even after. I'm making some big decisions in 2014...Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.