ten months

Give or take a couple weeks, ten months ago this roller coaster started. Ten months ago a belly ache ended up being a lot more than a belly ache.

There was a prognosis, a surgery, tests upon tests, a few months of chemo and a whole lot of celebrating when scan after scan came back clear.

At the tender age of two, she had beat it. Cancer was gone.

Except those two words never seem synonymous. Cancer, gone.

And another Friday afternoon phone call proved just that. My brother and sister-in-law were back at the hospital this weekend with Liv, another tummy ache, more waiting, more tests.

It's back. The cavity where they removed her kidney and the original tumor, a new tumor has grown. There are spots on her lungs. It's aggressive, it's not like last time. A month ago her scans were clear, and now this.

So now we're left questioning why, wondering, crying, being pissed off. And mostly gearing up to fight, because if there's one thing I have to say to cancer it's that it's not welcome in this family. It caught us off guard once and took my grandma, Liv showed it the exit route last time and there's no doubt in my mind she will do the same once again.