First, I want to say I am sorry to hear about your son's finger MrsD! Sounds awful! It reminds me of when I caught J's fingers in the electric beaters...ouch!... but thankfully, no finger tips were lost...we just needed lots of bandaids .

I was going to add the following after MrsD's post on the other thread, but I didn't want to turn the Merry Christmas thread into a total downer...so I thought I'd post separately.

My mom ended up in ICU at 4am on Christmas morning needing 4 units of blood after a night of vomiting blood / bloody diarrhea. She is still in the hospital today, stable, but we don't really know the extent of what is all wrong.

We had just been visiting with her at my sister's log home very near to where my parents live, and had seen them on Saturday night and Sunday. She was weak on Saturday and very ill on Sunday (bedridden)... although the vomiting didn't begin until very late..after we had already left for back home. So, this immediate crisis was unrelated to any of her past history, but caused by a tear to the stomach being pushed into her esophagus which occured while she was vomiting.

She had also been sick a couple of weeks back with diarrhea/vomiting, and we suspect a smaller tear may have occured then because the doctor felt the amount of blood lost and a huge clot in her stomach could not be explained by this single event. But, also as of a last week routine doctor/lab report, her liver enzymes are again elevated and she was anemic, which means either the liver cancer has returned, or she has been drinking again . So, none of this is good, and perhaps her cancer has spread elsewhere. All to be determined yet.

But, we did manage to have a nice fun visit with my sister's family before my mom's latest crisis, and my own family had a pleasant Christmas despite the bad news about my mom and other stresses that seem to be surrounding me. So, I am hanging in there, but feel like I haven't been myself for months... I'm hoping the New Year brings a new outlook for me~

My hubby is off work most of the week, so hopefully we can sneak some fun into our plans....although after Christmas, who has the $$ to do anything! We are watching lots of movies, and playing with our toys! I had my first stint with my daughters Guitar Hero video game last night, and we are still dancing to DDR...lol. That is always good for a laugh! Trying to keep smiling~

Cara