Round 3: Three Times and you're out?

Family photo from the Philippines.

Mom's own intro Salivary Gland Cancer section of her book:

Sometimes I can actually see patterns in life as they are happening instead of the more common hindsight that comes close to 20/20. 

As I moved back to Illinois I found myself helping to plan a memorial service for my Dad.  Then my Mom and I launched into amalgamating two households into one, learning to live together again in very new circumstances, getting her to eye experts and eventaully lined up for a cornea transplant to try to recapture the vision she was losing.  About this time I made an appointment with a local chiropractor referred to me by my Colorado specialist.  He asked me about the lump on the left side of my jaw and I explained that it had been watched by doctors for the past 8 years and I had been told not to do anything with it yet because it was too slow growing to be cancerous and would be messy to remove.

Dr. DiDominico looked at me and said, "Yes, but don't you really want to know what it is?"

He referred me to a colleague M.D. in a clinic a few towns away with X-ray equipment on site.  I saw him the day Magic Johnson announced his HIV+ condition on the television as I sat in the waiting room for them to develop the films.  The doctor referred me to a head and neck specialist and the drama began.