Mad At The World

Big sigh.

If you remember, we've had a heck of a time getting
Kean to stay on his therapy horse the past few weeks.

So this week, thanks to a most brilliant idea from his therapist,

we asked a wonderful friend -- Mari Tanner to take my place and

see if Kean wouldn't do better riding without wanting me to hold him the entire time!

And guess what?!?!?  It worked beautifully.

He stayed up (without trying to bail off) while I sat out in the car.

 He must have been feeling pretty proud of himself because 

he later rocked his Occupational Therapy session with Maureen.

 He followed through on all kinds of tasks and challenges, mimicked

a number of words and was giving us high fives and "knuckles" all over the place.

But then this afternoon, our great day just kinda fell apart.

And now I find myself a bit mad at the world.

I haven't said anything-- because we all felt like there was

no sense worrying about things until we had a reason to worry.

But my dad had a third appointment with a cancer doc today.

He had two suspicious growths on his face, had then biopsied and they came

back as cancer.

He had to go back to have them removed

and then today, he was supposed to have even more of the margins taken out.

But here's the thing, the doctor told him today, he has a form of Melanoma

that is fast moving-- deep and wide.  He has two choices:

plastic surgery to remove two big chunks of his face or radiation.

What is up with this insidious cancer and does it have to 

terrorize so many of my friends and family?

I'll tell you what makes me particularly sick-- my poor parents, especially

my mom has really suffered watching Kean go through all of this--

and now, here she is having to go through it with my dad.

Life just totally sucks sometimes-- or as it seems lately,

most of the time.

But I will say, my dad will likely go through this and be the strong one for us.

If you've never had the blessing of meeting him-- you're really missing out

on one of the kindest, most loving and giving men on this earth.

Say an extra prayer for my daddy tonight.