Okay, I'm going to explain some things that may have been perplexing for some of you all out there.

We finally got the stars together and got a fair number of the family together at the Coventry for a talk with mom. The cousins and I were there for a care conference with the head of nursing regarding moms "assistance fees" evaluation (usually done 30 days after entering the facility)

The assistance fees are the "over and above" fees beyond room and board that can come periously close to equaling the rent.  The more assistance the resident needs the higher the charge. (think thousands, not hundreds of dollars.

We had a productive meeting and managed to lower the fees with more adjustments to be made in the near term. We also went over and got an understanding that the staff at the Coventry will coordinate with the PT as to the one way to help mom with transfers instead of different interpretations depending on caregiver/CNA. The last thing someone needs is two people doing it one way and then others contradicting leading to confusion with mom stuck in the middle.

After the meeting we met Aunt M and Uncle H up in moms room and sat down for a fmily discussion.With that much familial support around for her (and all of us) I was finally able to tell her what has been going on with me medically that has kept me away from the place so much over the past month.

Since diagnosis in late December I have been battling cancer. Basically defined as Head and Neck HPV type 16 .

Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma with known human papillomavirus status

I wanted to be sure that mom had her feet solidly on the ground in the new environment before dropping that bombshell. Up until now only a small group of family have known that I was dealing with this. 

So we had a good talk and I was able to explain that I had finished all of my radiation and chemotherapy treatments and was in the phase after which can be as bad or worse for a few weeks before getting better.

The good news is that the type of cancer I HAD is highly treatable with very high success rate (above 90%)! The bad news is that it's one of the top three in most painful treatments. (I say AMEN to that)

So for the past nearly two months I have been having daily radiation treatments and weekly chemotherapy treatments with a host of side effects (basically all bad) 

The good news is that we caught it early and it had not spread, was only in one lymph node near the base of my tongue. 

I'll likely create another blog to deal with the specifics so as to not clutter this one up. This one is about mom.

With all of the family support she handled the news pretty well. 

Everyone was there to say, he's going to be fine, it's been a rough patch but he's coming out the other side and going to be good as new in a couple few months.

I'm gong in two to three times a week for IV fluids and have lost 45 pounds as of yesterday ! (not a diet plan I recommend at all. 

I can say though, if you're going to go through a treatment like this, by all mean start out as a fat ass! My "reserves" have kept me out of the hospital with a feeding tube! 

I'll let folks know when I get another blog on this up. Fatigue has limited how much I can do on a daily basis and yesterday was a long day.