It was a heck of a day

Bob and I drove up to NY to be with my brother. He was recently diagnosed with throat cancer, he had a PET scan on Monday and was having a procedure done to evaluate the extent of the cancer in his throat.  I went get Mom from the waiting room to spend time with my brother in the prep area. She walked about 30 feet, got dizzy and fell on her face. Literally - she didn't put her hands out to catch herself and fell face first! I spent the next 6 hours rotating between the ER where Mom was and the OR area where my brother was, taking turns with Bob. I did get to talk to my brother's doctor, thank goodness. The news is not good - stage IV cancer of the throat. He apparently has a "light load" of cells in the throat, which is a good thing, but there is lymph node involvment, which is bad. Chemo (if his body can handle it along with pancreatitis) and radiation therapy. It's gonna be a rough couple of months coming up.

Mom had a CT scan of her brain (she had a huge lump on her head and with her history .... lots of bruises and 5 stitches in her upper lip. This morning she looks worse - the eye under the lump is black and she hurts everywhere, which was what we all expected. Poor Mom. She doesn't take ibuprofen after her head bleed episodes, and Tylenol doesn't do much for that kind of hurt. Sigh.

We'll head home either later today or in the morning, depending on what Mom needs today. My brother is fine physically, and had some thinking and research to do before he starts his treatment. He is determined, though, to tough this out with a positive attitude and that's good.

I started a new cowl on the trip. I wanted something very simple to knit so I could knit and talk with Mom while waiting. I used some handspun yarn (yippee!) and cast on for the Elis. (sorry. I could only find a Ravelry link)  Just what the doctor ordered.