Hi, Kay. Yes, she is going through all of the paperwork, and she is getting a bit overwhelmed. My dad left everything to her, and my sister-in-law, who is an accountant, is the executor of the will. She is doing most of the work, but they are waiting on the official death certificate before the house can be put in my mom's name. She can't sell until that is done. She also has to get rid of the car, since she doesn't drive, but one of my brothers needs a trade-in, and he is going to buy the car from her ( at a fair market price, of course). My dad did have his affairs in order, and all of the investments were in my mom's name anyhow, so she doesn't have too much to do. Right now she is slowly going through the house getting rid of things she won't need in an apartment. They lived in the same place for 44 years, so it's quite a big job, although in recent years they did begin to clear out a lot of junk. The biggest job is already done. My dad was into model trains, and had a huge set-up in two rooms in the basement. He had literally hundreds of cars, plus little villages, etc. He kept all of the boxes, but it still took us the better part of a week to dismantle the whole thing. The trains are going to be divided up between my brothers, and my mom didn't have to do a thing. We have been very fortunate that there have been absolutely NO arguements over money or disposing of posessions. I have heard so many stories about how a death in the family can bring out the absolute worst in people, but this is not the case for us. All of my brothers and I just want our mom to have as smooth a move as possible, and to end up with as much money as she can get. She is anxious to sell, she finds there are just too many memories in the house, and she wants a fresh start. Hopefully, she can be settled in her new place before the winter weather begins.

Scoobyruby, a year ago I could have written your post. We were facing a similar decision for my 9 year old greyhound, Voldemort, so I completely understand that your heart is breaking. Voldemort will have been a tripod for a year the first week in August. It has been a wonderful year and I am so glad we had the chance to enjoy it with him. We opted not to do the chemotherapy because statistically it would only extend his life a few months and he would have the treatments and nausea to deal with. He went to bed fine and woke up the next morning with a significant limp which didn't go away. After discussing the options we took him home, tentatively planning to keep him comfortable with pain meds. However, two days later, he and his greyhound pal Blitzen took off on a full-out run as greyhounds love to do. When I caught up with them, they were standing shoulder-to-shoulder and Voldemort wasn't putting any weight on his rear leg. Turns out he had a broken leg and it could not be repaired and the next day we brought home our tripod. After a few days of recovery, he essentially returned, pain free, to his normal activity. It is amazing how well a three legged dog can get around. Often, when people first meet him, it is a few minutes before they even realize he is missing a leg. He was X-rayed for something unrelated and I asked them to do his lungs while he was on the table. Sure enough, he has metastases to his lungs, but for now he is symptom free. He doesn't handle slippery floors very well. A few times he has fallen and couldn't get up without help, so now he is afraid of them and avoids them. Almost our entire downstairs is hardwood floors and hard surface floors in the kitchen. He stops at the door to the kitchen. We also have inexpensive runners from Home Depot crisscrossing the floors. I felt that you needed to hear a positive experience with amputation. As humans, we have to get over a psychological resistance to the whole idea, because it is so much more significant in two legged animals. A dog probably doesn't care if he has three legs as long as he has his human/animal pack around him, regular meals, a soft bed, tummy rubs, etc. I am grateful that we have had this year to love him and spoil him and we will continue to as long as he is enjoying life.

Kathy....GREAT NEWS!!! I'm so happy for you and your Mom. I hope and pray you get a good result from the blood and PET scans. If I could , I would do a cartwheel with you, but I've always been a klutz. Love, Dottie

I wanted to say the same thing that kathi did...you don't really know what kind of side effects you will have from chemo. It is way different from what it used to be. I heard so many horror stories that I was very worried but it wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined or had heard it would be. I have had some side effects but the biggest one is just fatigue and we can all live with taking a nap or resting when we need too. I am losing my hair but it's only hair. I gave up the biggest part of a breast to beat cancer so I can easily give up my hair cause I know it will grow back...The others go away fast enough and I usually only have two days of feeling really punk and the rest of the week I am OK...I manage. I have help cleaning the hard stuff in my home like baths and kitchens etc but I still keep up with the daily stuff including the laundry and do most of our meals as well. Many of my friends have worked during their whole chemo so don't expect the absolute worst.....Just do what you need to do to get through and it goes pretty fast. I started in Sept if I remember correctly and I will be finished by the end of Jan. You will probably appreciate help when you need it but you'll get it done before you know it....