Willie Nelson, Anyone?

 "On the road again...."🎵🎵

Truly, I CAN just wait to get on the road again! 😁 I do, however, enjoy these days spent with Mom and Dad. Who knows how many opportunities I will have left 💜.

Today was A LOT of driving. I got up at 6:00 this morning and was packed, loaded, and on the road by 6:30. No sooner did I arrive in Brantford and unload for my stay, it was time to hit the road to Kitchener for Mom's consult with the pancreatic surgeon. We arrived, and before too long were called into the office. Unfortunately, the surgeon had received the report of Mom's CT scan from Brantford, but was not able to access the images. Apparently, Brantford's system is not the same as Kitchener's. Unbeknownst to us, we would have had to request a disc of the images to bring along to the appointment. That being said, the surgeon did still discuss things with us.

The procedure that would occur, providing Mom's images would show her to be a candidate, is called the Whipple Procedure. It is a very complicated and very dangerous procedure with a high  possibility of death during or shortly after the procedure. They would remove some of the stomach, the head of the pancreas, the gall bladder, and a section of the intestine. They would also have to resect a good deal of the bile ducts. If successful, and if Mom survived it, it could buy her some undetermined amount of time. The surgeon did not say that he would not do the procedure, if Mom wanted it and the CT scan images showed her to be a candidate, but he did...rather strongly...suggest that she not do the procedure. Mom was inclined to agree with him, stating that she did not want to have the surgery. She did ask him if there were any other options..."like chemo?" He felt that this would not be a good option either in that it would be unlikely to affect the tumour enough (he said that Mom's pancreatic cancer is very aggressive and the tumour is already approximately the size of a golf ball). In a nutshell, he would recommend the surgery over chemo for this type of cancer, but given her age, he weighed the benefits and found them wanting. What he suggested would be to keep replacing the stent as needed, and possibly doing some radiation if/when the tumour becomes painful.

All in all, not the best news....but I was not surprised.

Anyway, on my way to Brantford I made a stop at Michael's in Guelph. I needed a pitstop, and this seemed like a good place as it would allow me to "get inspired" for the next Out Of The Box project. I did find quite a few things that I believe will help me to accomplish the task, but I'm not ready to show anything yet 😊. But....I also got distracted by some yarns that were on clearance. In particular, a chunky yarn that was variegated with cream, purple, and a peachy-pink. Hmmm!!! I know a 1-1/2 year old who might appreciate a snuggle blanket 😁. I got started with crocheting and have managed to get pretty far already. It's not too hard with such a chunky yarn.

As I was getting ready to do this blog and shut down for the night, I noticed this booklet in the shelf in the bedroom that I am sleeping in.

It was first published in 1982, but it must have been reasonably popular in its day as it had a 7th printing in 1987. I wonder if Elaine would think it's useful? 😜

And on that note, I wish you all a very good night!

TTFN