Goodbye Harold, Hello Cancer

To say life has been full lately would be an understatement. On Monday we said farewell to our beloved dog Harold. On Tuesday, my mom had a lumpectomy. Not the best start to a week, for sure.

Just going in chronological order...Monday was a sad day. We got Harold from the Humane Society back in November and Ben worked so hard to train him and it worked so well. Harold was a quick learner and he adored Ben.

 He was playful,

 curious and sincere,

 always ready for an adventure,

sometimes so ready that we had to hold him back.

 But this summer, in the middle of July he got sick. He wouldn't eat and even after spending a week at the vet he never got better. He would eat, but sparingly and he would often throw up. He was miserable, although he continued to be a cheerful dog. Then over the weekend he stopped eating. And so on Monday we said goodbye. Here he is on Monday morning, skinny and tired even though he just got up. It was so hard to decide what to do with him, and depressing to watch him decline more and more.

 We're missing him. He was a constant companion around the yard and made every walk and bike ride an adventure.

The boys claim they're ready for a new dog, but I don't think Ben and I will be ready to start over again with a dog for a little while. 

Next up: cancer. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer about two weeks ago. After a biopsy, the unusual spot found on her mammogram was determined to be malignant. Small, seemed to be contained, but malignant nonetheless. 

**Apparently, I have no good pictures of my mother...these are the best two recent photos I have of her...**
Anyway, yesterday she had a lumpectomy done. It is certainly an odd reality to face the fact that your parents, in this case my mother, are aging. I know, I know, I know. Breast cancer happens to people of all ages, it has nothing to do with her age. I get that. It's just that this is the first health related issue that's happened to either one of my parents since my dad had melanoma when I was so young I can only remember it with the fuzziest of images in my head. They are healthy people. We haven't sat in waiting rooms waiting for a surgeon to come and talk to us. We haven't walked this path. But now we are.

We're awaiting the pathology report on the lymph node the surgeon removed. We're praying that it's clear and healthy. If it's clear then mom does 6 weeks of radiation. If it's not then the journey takes a left hand turn toward chemo, followed by radiation.
It's been quite a week around here - and it's only Wednesday!