selfish

I know I talk a lot about my MIL. I've told you all how she became m*slim after spending all of her life living a strict christian life. So, lets just put that aside, for now.

Lets just talk a minute about cancer. How would you react if your daughter, father, husband, whomever you love, found out they have cancer? How would a normal person react to such news?

Do you let go of the small stuff? All the little family fusses? I'm not talking about big family drama. I'm not talking about abuse, or things of that nature. I'm really talking about the little things. You said this about me, I said this about you...you know, stupid little things.

I believe that when you are faced with life and death, little stuff like that holds no meaning. Why would you hold on to the little crap like that when you don't even know what the future holds? Frankly, we shouldn't hold on to that kind of thing even if we aren't dying. But, we are human and petty stuff gets in the way sometimes.

I get that.

On to the real subject. The m*slim MIL made the trip unpleasant and caused undue stress on the entire family.

I take that back. Most of the trip, we stayed as far away from her as possible and we had a good time, despite the cancer. We tried our hardest to do what we could for D, and we just wanted to enjoy our time with her before treatments begin.

You would think that would keep us out of trouble with the m*slim MIL.

You would think.

Instead, after much tongue biting and avoidance, the big blow-up was bound to happen.

And it did...

Friday was the FIL's birthday. Let me just mention now that my FIL is the resident slave to the MIL. This man is such a mouse that I would NEVER, ever be able to have a husband that wimpy. He is a wonderful man. He is funny, smart and has a very cheerful personality. But the MIL treats him like a whipped slave boy. AND,he puts up with it. I can't handle that. It's such a poor example to set for my children. I just makes me CRAZY.

Back to the story, so Friday is the FIL's birthday. D had a doctors appointment. After the appointment on Thursday, D did NOT want her mother going to this appointment. So Bossman said that he would go with her and her husband to the appointment. They didn't TELL the MIL she couldn't go, but once she found out the Bossman was going, she decided she didn't want to go. So, the appointment was at noon. They left. They didn't come home to after 3. They stopped to run some errands after the appointment. After this, the plan was to take the FIL out for some fun around Vegas. When I say fun, I really mean, he wanted to go to a knife store to get a spring for his swiss army knife and he wanted to go to a ham radio store to look for a new antenna and he wanted to go the Bass Pro sporting good store.

Needless to say, I wanted to stay home. So, Bossman and the little man were going to take him out. They thought that would be a fun bonding time for the Grandpa, Son and Grandson.

Sounds great right?

They left around 3:30. They would be gone a couple of hours. It's Vegas people, it takes 45 minutes just to get across town. Add that to getting lost a couple of times and you've got yourself a long time gone.

Meanwhile I took the MIL m*slim out to buy a birthday card for her husband. Fun times were had by all. She wore her hijab scarf, and since this was the first time I've been in public with her wearing her thingie, it was quite a treat. Ever seen a pasty white m*slim with blonde hair? Ok, maybe not the hair, but still pasty white? It makes for an interesting sight.

Anywhoo, we get home and we are waiting around for the boys to come home. D is taking a nap and the plan was to have a little party for the birthday boy after dinner. Like I said, the boys took some time. After about an hour of being home, the MIL comes down the stairs and wants to know if I've heard from the boys. I said they would be home in 30 minutes or so. She yells that she is REALLY mad at her husband now. HE was suppose to spend time alone with her on HIS birthday. How DARE he spend a couple of hours with his son and grandson.

Then she disappeared in a puff of smoke to her room.

The boys came home. The MIL, she never made a reappearance. We decided to wait until Saturday for cake.

Turns out, the MIL spent the rest of her night crying in her pillow about how unfair life really is. Not because her daughter has cancer, but because her husband was out too long with his son.

Fun, fun times.

Remember, the boys didn't leave until 3:30. She and the FIL did NOTHING until that time. Why didn't they go out earlier, you ask? Good question. I'll have to ask her sometime.

Although, right now, she isn't speaking to us.

Bet you want to know why. That happened the next day. Saturday, the day the shit hit the fan. The day we decide we better come home before there were murder /suicides.

I try telling that fun story tomorrow.

But for now, let me leave you with an update on D. She is having the chemo put directly into the tumor today. They are hoping to shrink the tumor and maybe even make it disappear completely. Surgery is a long way off. After this treatment they won't even check it for a month. Then depending on how the treatment is working, they may do another. They say she will probably be able to carry on with life as normally as possible for a while. So right now, only time will tell.

Best case scenario, the tumor shrinks to nothing and life goes on. Worst case, it doesn't work at all and she has a liver transplant.

So, we concentrate on the best case and we have faith that the treatment will work.

I KNOW it will work.

Did you know that I've know D since she was 12?

yep. It's going to work. It has too!