News that came back

 My little sister Laura has had adventures of one kind or another all her life. Some have been exciting in the water, on mountains, and visiting different countries, but some have been extraordinarily difficult - like her newest adventure. It threatened in January when she got news from the doctor that she needed to come back for tests when she visited to figure out why she had so much pain from an injury in December.

But the hammer fell on February 15 at 5:15 pm Pacific Time, Susan posted on the Family messages:

"Dear Family,

Laura got the news back today from her doctor. She has stage 4 melanoma. It appears to have spread through her lymph system - now appearing in her lungs and 9 tumors throughout her body.  she is going in for a MRI to scan her brain. The doctor says she has about 6 1/2 years with treatment. We are going to have a family fast on Sunday for Laura and her family. Please join us if you can."

After an immediate outpouring of love on texts, eight siblings met at her house to visit, tell stories, and be with her. She told me later that she felt an overwhelming love from her family, friends, and associates.

Being the kind of person who has to know, I visited the Cancer.org site to learn about melanoma and the treatment options. It was very dismaying. If you want to understand and be sad too here is the site address: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/melanoma-skin-cancer/about/what-is-melanoma.html#:~:text=Melanoma%20is%20a%20type%20of,other%20areas%20of%20the%20body.

There is a button to click on for treatments of the various stages and all kinds of pictures. Reading through stage 4 melanoma was sobering. I realized that my little sister has a time stamp for this mortal life. Only God can mitigate. I'll keep you posted on this epic adventure.