Friday, December 19, 2014

Leg Lump

If you've never seen the movie A Christmas Story, shame on you.  GO SEE IT RIGHT NOW.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200.  Just watch it, because it is the best Christmas movie ever, and don't anyone try to tell me otherwise.

This is Peter Billingsley, who stared as Ralphie:


I got curious about him.  I wondered :What does he look like today?"


Here he is, having aged quite gracefully, I must say.  Looks like he didn't shoot his eye out after all.

If you know the movie, you know the leg lamp.


It's a testament to the staying power of the movie that more than 20 years after it was released, leg lamps are still selling well.  Good old leg lamp.

However, that is not what I have gotten for Christmas.  Unfortunately, my Mom has just discovered a pretty scary-looking leg lump.  She had it checked out by ultrasound yesterday.  It's not a cyst, and it's growing fast.  Dang.  

Is it just me, or does crap like this always happen around Christmastime?  November and December seem to be reliably dark months in all senses of the word.

Next step will be an MRI to see what we can see.  Until then... we wait.

Although I had to sit down when I first heard about what was going on, I'm feeling steady now.  I've been psyching myself up for something like this for the past couple of years.  I've been reminding myself that my parents are getting older, and that I need to stay strong if/when they start to go downhill.  If I fall apart for a while, I must put myself back together again before long.  Socks up, chin up, take one day at a time.  I'm glad I was at least slightly braced.

This may turn out to be nothing serious.  My Mom will probably need surgery to remove the Whatever It Is, and that might be the end of it.  She can recuperate at her Mom's house, where there are care workers on duty 24/7 already.  

Thanks in advance for your well wishes and prayers.  I know all y'all have my back! :-)

9 comments:

DarcKnyt said...

I'm sorry, Spark. We'll pray for you and your mom.

I hope you all still manage to have a happy and blessed Christmas and New Year. And a Chag Chanukkah too. :)

Jenny Woolf said...

I'm sorry to hear about your mum's leg lump. I hope they can get it out asap and that all will be fine. It is so hard to put these things out of your mind but best not to cross bridges before you come to them, and I hope you have a good Christmas and so does she.

Yes, and I agree crap happens moe at this time of year, at least in the Northern hemisphere, where the weather can be so cold. Roll on Spring. Once it gets to 21 December the only way is better weatherwise, so that is a good thought.

Warped Mind of Ron said...

Sending positive thoughts out to your mother. I'm sure there are a million things it could be that are not major things to fix so I'm betting on that.

G. B. Miller said...

Sorry to hear about your mom. She'll be in my thoughts.

As to A Christmas Story, on Christmas Day TBS (a US t.v. station) plays the movie non-stop from midnight to midnight.

Father Nature's Corner

Ginny said...

You have the right attitude about this. No need to get worked up until everyone knows what's going on. I hope it's just nothing. The waiting is the worst.

LL Cool Joe said...

Oh no I'm so sorry to hear about your mother's leg. I pray it's nothing serious.

Yeah this year seems set to be a crappy Christmas. Maybe Christmas is only worry free when we are kids. Well actually it wasn't for me.

And I've never seen the film! Sorry!

Happy Christmas!!

Emma Gorst said...

Wow that's crazy about your mum. Sorry to hear that. I hope the doctors can move fast and that it will be a minor fix. HUGS.

Jenski said...

Thinking of your mom and all of you! Sometimes I think that even though the holidays are busy, people notice and make time to have things like lumps checked out because a new year is looming. My mom had a weird lump in her side she finally had checked after it bothered her for months. It's nothing major and I hope your mom finds the same!

Vanessence7 said...

So, I found some old emails that are links to your posts, and I realized I hadn't commented on some of them. I remember this one in particular because I was making dinner so Dane read it to me, and I asked him to let you know that I'd be praying for your mom, and for you. (He often reads me stuff from posts and from Facebook when I'm in the kitchen.) And I guess my mind just checked it off that I'd commented when I, in fact, hadn't. I'm so sorry. I have been a terrible blog friend. I'll be going over these emails and seeing which ones I've missed, and I will try to be better in the future. *hugs*