My mom

I've created this blog mostly to ramble on about my mom's melanoma diagnosis and what happens when a loved one is diagnosed with cancer. I am mad at this disease and what it does to people, but also love seeing how God uses cancer in a Christian's life to be a testimony to Him.

My mom, Ann, was diagnosed with Stage II melanoma of the scalp in August, 2007. She has since had the melanoma removed (in September, 2007) and undergone numerous tests. Cancer was found in the lymph nodes of her right neck and she had surgery on February 27, 2008. Thankfully, the cancer appears to have not spread to any other parts of her body (i.e., it has not metastasized).

I work for lawyers who specialize in medical malpractice cases and have watched two of our clients die from undiagnosed melanoma. I know what this disease can do. I am so grateful that my mother's disease has not spread, but I know that it can recur at any time and anywhere in her body.

She has been such a testimony, especially during the last 12 years of her life. She underwent a liver transplant in August, 1996, at MCV in Richmond. She has never had rejection from the liver but was very ill in the fall of 2003 and spring of 2004. She rebounded from those illnesses and continued to give God the credit for her health.

Now, she is beginning a long road of recovery from a surgery that took part of her parotid gland and several lymph nodes on the right side of her neck.