Cancer. Again.

My mother's neck has been recovering nicely since her surgery, but during her recovery, she started experiencing lower back pain. She decided to call her doctor and ask for an MRI. That's when they discovered the malignant tumors. We think she has Multiple Myeloma, which is a pretty rotten kind of cancer to have. It starts in the blood, sometimes winds up in an organ, then spreads through the bones and manifests itself in the form of unexplainable fractures and tumors - both of which my mom has experienced since December. After we know the official type of cancer, we are getting her straight to Dana Farber. My hope is that she can go through radiation (and other treatments, as necessary) to eradicate the cancer from her body, then have her on a long-term management plan. There's a long road ahead, though, and it's going to be really crappy. I have moved beyond scared - maybe it's because we know for sure that it's cancer. I am now in "let's kick this thing's ass" mode. There are a lot of new treatments that are very promising for Multiple Myeloma. And she's under 60 and in reasonably good health otherwise, so this makes her a good candidate for something a little more experimental. Still, she'll have this for the rest of her life. There is no cure. It used to be that you could expect to live 2-3 years after diagnosis. Now, if you catch it early enough, you can live up to 10 years. Geraldine Ferraro has it and I think she's 10 years +, at this point. We are trying to remain cautiously optimistic and keep our sense of humor in tact. More on this as things develop.