Old Post #2 and more

I'm not going to lie. I am excited beyond belief about my first Mother's Day. I have been waiting for this for 2 long years. Mother's are so very very important and mine held my hand all the way through the adoption process...well, until I left for court and she became very ill. About a month ago my mom was diagnosed with a disease called Wegener's granulomatosis...now they just call it Vasculitis, which in my opinion kind of softens the severity and urgency of treatment for those who are lucky enough to get diagnosed.  The disease usually shows up with insignificant symptoms and doctors aren't looking for it. There are fewer than 10 cases of this per million each year. Undiagnosed the survival rate is 5 months and until a few years ago it was never diagnosed before it was too late (I mean it's so rare that they don't know about it or think about it). Thank goodness my mom's team of doctors were ON THE BALL. I could kiss them all. She has been getting treatment for over a month (was admitted to the hospital the day after we left for Russia and stayed a month) and she is doing well. She's a strong lady with a positive attitude. She currently has to go to dialysis for kidney damage three days a week and is doing chemotherapy as well to fight the disease. She's going to kick this thing into remission. She's having trouble walking and needs a walker or wheelchair...but she insists on cooking, doing laundry and now grocery shopping. Little E likes to ride in her lap. My mom is an amazing woman. I know she will pull through (but some warm thoughts for her are always welcome). I call this Old Post #2 because I wanted to re-live some posts I wrote about my mom...

http://heartsonstrings-jl.blogspot.com/2010/01/future-day-of-celebration.html 

http://heartsonstrings-jl.blogspot.com/2010/05/black-eyed-susans-and-other-wild-ladies.html