We took a trip to my hometown of Clinton, SC this weekend. Our primary reason for the visit was to see my grandmother (MingMa) who had spent most oft he past two weeks in the hospital. MingMa is my only living grandparent. She is also Caden and Riley’s only living great-grandparent.
Ming’s stay in the hospital ended with a disturbing diagnosis from the doctors. She has been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. The diagnosis was confirmed earlier this week and the doctors have basically told her that there is nothing they can do for this type of cancer.
The really cool thing about all this was that MingMa had the most awesome attitude a person could possibly have in her situation. She had to get a little surgical procedure this week and she told me, “I was not scared at all.” I said, “You know why?” She just shook her head with a yes. I continued and told her that she was not scared because she has Jesus. I reminded her how God has healed Caden and how faith in God is all you have to stand on sometimes with these medical concerns. I told her that we are praying every night for healing and comfort for her.
My uncle will be staying with her for as long as needed. He is double retired from the military as well as civil service. He would be there even if he was not retired though.
The other cool thing about the visit with Ming was that I got to remind her that I would likely not have God in my life today if it were not for her. I am told that she started taking me to church when I was not even crawling. She made sure I got to Sunday school every week for 14 years except for the Sunday I spent in the hospital when getting my tonsils taken out. How can I possibly remember that? Well, I have a 9 year perfect attendance pin from Calvary Baptist Church in Clinton, SC to help remind me. It would have been closer to 14 years perfect attendance, but they made me start over after missing that one Sunday when I was five years old.
Ming told me that she was very proud of how I have turned out. I told her that she would probably be even more proud if she could follow me around for a few days and see that I am truly trying to live a good Christian life. She can be proud of herself for setting an example for me, her children and many other grandchildren.
On a sad note, our trip came with the loss of one of my sister’s cats “Foots”. Foots and Trouble were our cats until about two years ago when Riley tested as allergic to cats. Foots was picked out from the SPCA not long after we moved into this house. He was to keep Trouble company while Sherry and I worked. Foots was also called “G-man” because spent about $1000 nursing him to health after bringing him home from the pound back in 2001. He got so sick that he spent some time in an oxygen tent on an IV in the animal hospital. My sister took him in for an autopsy because he was an inside cat along with Trouble and two others. She wanted to make sure that Foots did not die of something that might affect the other cats. The autopsy showed that Foots died of a heart attack due to a defect. This of course has no affect on other cats in the house.
There is still more news on Caden but it has nothing to do with our trip to Clinton. I will write more about that later. In the meantime, let me just say praise God for botox. We are back to full nights of sleep without suctioning Caden at all.