A Welcome Home, A Hospital Visit and and Anniversary ...

Greetings my dear friends and visitors! What a emotional rollercoater this week has been. I was set to leave yesterday to go to Houston to meet George for his R&R(deployment leave). I was crazy excited, trying desperately to get homework done and turned in, bags packed for out three week stay in Houston as well as getting everything completed to get my unit's Families through my vacation. But on Monday, all of that changed.

My father-in-law was scheduled for a scope proceedure for some stomach and other pain that has been plaguing him for months. He hasn't eaten any solid food for three weeks and George and I were set to sit down with his doctors and get a straight answer once he got home. But at noon I recieved a call from his niece that the doctors felt something was wrong. He was very jaundiced (think school bus yellow) weak and has lost another 10 pounds or so since I'd see him over the Fourth of July. They ran test and discovered that on top of the liver disease they were already treating him for, he also had pancreatic cancer and would need surgery soon. They were concerned that it was such a high risk proceedure that the initiated a Red Cross messsage (as had I already) to bring George home early. I had already (thankfully) talked to George and had told him what was going on because no one needs to be surprised like that. The doctor's Red Cross message went so far to say that without surgery his dad would only have 3-4 months.

My command team sent me home to pack and I left for Houston early Tuesday with the promise from my command team of any help they could offer to get George home. He arrived on Thursday and we met with the specialist yesterday. His diagnosis is the same, but his options are better. We're taking it one day at a time and I'll post more as we know, but I will be off and on the next few weeks.

On a lighter note, my 3-year blog-iversary! I'd meant to write a reflective piece about how my page has evolved over the years, settling for a "life in the military" theme. Reflect on those who've been here from the beginning (Lime!), the new friends and those who have become a source of inspiration and support. Thank you all for your friendship!

Until our next cup tea ...