My mother has spent the last 45 years of her life taking care of other people. I always imagined that when she retired we'd spend so much more time doing things and taking trips together. I'm still hoping for that, but we're facing a long shaky bridge right now.

My mother has pancreatic cancer. At least that's what the doctors say. The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is typically a particularly bad one. The good news is that the mass hasn't spread anywhere, and because of it being located by her bile duct, she jaundiced and started showing signs earlier than most patients with the same diagnosis. She had a stent placed yesterday, and they're using the sells to check for malignancy. She's going to be scheduled for surgery soon. I'm keeping positive.

She's also the most loving, giving, and self sacrificing person I'll ever know.  She's also sharp witted, sarcastic, and finds humor in everything. I inherited her sense of humor. Mom has no shame, either. She's been known to say things to my brothers and I to the tune of, "Condoms? We didn't use those back in the 60's! Why would we have? There was no AIDS back then!" She also once made a sex toy joke towards me on Christmas morning while we were unwrapping presents. You can see the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree.

As far as I'm convinced, we'll still be seeing the last Harry Potter movie together. Heck, as far as I'm convinced she'll be in the 5% that's still alive in 5 years. I'll stay in that mind frame until things start looking otherwise.

I have a good support team, too. They say things come in 3's, and that has to be true because two of my nearest and dearest are also recently dealing with parents that have been diagnosed with cancer. As terrible of a thing as it is to deal with, at least we won't be doing it alone.

So wish me a happy 28th birthday, and I'll try to get back to some sense of normalcy.