Where in the world is Amanda Tom?

I'm currently, believe it or not, sitting in my bedroom at my parents' house. This is not somewhere I thought I'd be for a year when I left in August, but 4 and a half short months later, here I sit...And here's why:

The last time I posted, Penny and Kevin were out of town on a week long trip, and so it was me and the girls at home for a week. Like I had said, it was snowing, which was great. I loved it, I've never lived somewhere that it snowed before, only visited, so I thought it was really, really awesome. On Friday the 3rd, I Skyped with my mom and she dropped the biggest news on me that I've heard since she and my dad told me in April that they were getting a divorce...she had a colonoscopy a few days before, and they discovered a mass that looked bad. She had a doctor's appointment, and while she did that, Selena and Kiv were over and we did holiday arts and crafts with the girls and started a super long Star Wars Monopoly game. When I talked to my mom the second time that night, she told me that the doctors told her the mass was malignant...my mom has colon cancer. And I immediately hated that I wasn't close enough to give my mommy a hug right away and be there for her.

I had an emotionally tough week and a half between that time and when I was scheduled to fly to Ohio for Christmas. My mom's doctors thought that the had caught it early, and that she should be "cured" by just having one operation to take out the mass, and that she could wait until after Christmas, since my mom and I had plans to maybe go to Washington, DC or New York sometime after Christmas before I went back to England on January 4. We didn't really see much of a reason to change those plans, so on December 14th I flew to Ohio, and was there until December 29th. We decided to come back a little earlier than planned [January 4th], because there was worry that there might be something in my mom's liver too, but she had an ultrasound and the doctors said they're just cysts, nothing to worry about. Over the time we were in Ohio, someone made an [really, ridiculously low] offer on our house, which is for sale. They ended up not liking our counter offer, and moved on, but with that and cancer, my mom and I wanted to be home sooner than January 4th, since her surgery was scheduled for January 7th. We just relaxed and enjoyed being in our own house before the surgery.

I had a great time in Ohio for Christmas. We went to Chicago for a few days to visit some cousins, and got to see my grandma a lot, who is doing absolutely phenomenal. She has come really far from where she was when I saw her in August. She's walking with a walker, and has leg exercises that she does every day...she nearly gave my dad a heart attack I think when she started to do them one day while we visited! But, it is hilarious to see her standing next to my brother, who also sort of looks like a woolly mammoth right now. Also, I got to meet a new baby cousin, and see almost all of my other cousins, plus almost all my aunts and uncles from both sides of the family.



I'm only saying this because Grandma called herself a shrimp after she saw this...
"The Woolly Mammoth and the Shrimp"


Me, Grandma and Nate!


My mom had her surgery almost a week ago now. It was about 4 hours long, which was on the long side of their estimates of how long it would take, but the doctor said it went well. It was Nate's last weekend at home, and we visited mom the last days he was home. Monday came and we were expecting the pathology report, and Nate flew back to Texas that day, so I went to see mom alone and we waited...and waited...and waited...for the doctor to come in and tell us what the report said. We had been told that the report was there, but that "he who removed it has to tell you about it" and her doctor was in surgery. Patience is not our strong suit, but we waited 6 hours before finding out he was gone for the day, but he'd come Tuesday.

I'll be adding Tuesday to my list of "days I heard news I was not at all expecting." We were really hopeful that the surgical cure we were waiting for had happened. But, that's not the news we got. The mass had gone through the colon wall, and 2 of the 14 lymph nodes they took out were not clear. Since it went through the wall, that made the cancer Stage 3, which was scary to hear. The doctor didn't think the cancer had spread anywhere else, but, in "an abundance of caution," my mom will be getting chemo starting in about 4-6 weeks. She has to go back to the doctor next week to talk more about it, but it's looking like probably 4-6 months of treatment. This chemo is supposed to be very well tolerated, and he said she probably won't lose her hair, which is good. Although I did volunteer to donate some of mine if she did. ;)

So, what does this mean for my time abroad?
Well, in short, it means that for now, it's over. Very well tolerated or not, I don't think mom's going to be driving herself around while she's getting chemo. Of course, I also am just feeling that this is where I need to be right now, with my mom, while she goes through this. So, I'm home, for good. And I will say, it's great to be home with my mom again, there's nothing quite like your mom!