It is 2:25 P.M. on Tuesday. Mom went for bloodwork today. She got a copy of the paperwork, so I will know her "counts". I am trying to keep a close eye on everything.

Mom, aka Pat Salmen, is the most wonderful mother that anyone could ask for. She is an even better grandmother. She adores, my daughter, her only grandchild, who is in Australia studying abroad right now. Britt will be home on June 13th, thank goodness. What a scene the folks at Pittsburgh International Airport are going to see at 9:55 P.M. that night. Me, Mom, Dad and Joshua will be screaming and crying tears of happiness when we see our Brittany. Mom, especially will be overjoyed. My daughter idolizes her grandparents. Really. She does.

I get off track so easily. 1st visit with the surgeon was May 5th. Mom was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. Immediately, the surgeon said "You will need chemotherapy." "You will lose your hair." You will have to have a mastectomy." You will have all the lymph nodes removed on your left side." "You will need to have radiation."

1st she found out that she has the "C" word. Then they throw all of that shit at you. But the surgeon, Mary Beth Malay, is absolutely wonderful. She is down to earth, very easy to talk to and she hugged Mom more than once. She laughed with us and most importantly she made sure that I had the answer to all of the 31, yes 31 questions I had prepared to her ahead of time. I wanted to make sure I had all of the bases covered. This is my mother and best friend we are talking about. Dr. Malay's staff is wonderful, as well. They felt like family before we left the office that day. Can't remember is I said so before, but Dr. Malay said the breast mass was 2 cm. and the lump under the arm was 5cm. Mama looked so scared. Hell, I was scared.

From there we had an appointment with the oncologist. We saw Dr. Simons and she reviewed the types of chemo Mom would receive. Adriamycin and Cytoxan for the 1st cycle. Tomaxere for the 2nd cycle. Again reiterated that she would lose her hair. A nurse then came in to review the side effects, way too many to list, and again, the fact that she would lose her hair. If one more person told her that she was going to lose her hair, I think I would have slapped them.

It is bad enough to find out the long fight you have ahead of you, but to know you have to fight the fight bald? Come on, now. This was a bit too much for my mama. If you know her well, you know that every hair must be in place at all times. Hell, my dad had to sell his convertible when they were first married because she wouldn't ride in it with him. After all, her hair would get messed up. :)

Back to the chemo nurse; she gave mom some brochures that had wigs, bandanas, head coverings, etc. to browse through. Mom wanted no part of it. Can't blame her.

Anyhow, after the chemotherapy nurse was in, a member of the finance staff came in to discuss the insurance coverage and all of that, which registered as nil, as our brains were mush from all of the other information we had received already.

Finally, it was time to go home, but not before scheduling her 1st chemo treatment. AND before that she had to have bloodwork and her heart tested to ensure it was strong enough for chemo. Bloodwork was scheduled for that Wednesday, along with the heart test and chemo was scheduled for Tuesday May 13th.

I just want to take my mother in my arms and hug it all away. We should be able to do that you, know. Just give someone we love a great big hug and then "poof" everything is wonderful again.