Well, today we got the good news that Mom will have her surgery to remove a pesky remnant of the cancer in her left arm; she had an operation several weeks ago, but the surgeon obviously missed a spot and wasn't too keen on checking if everything was okay before closing the incision on Mom's arm.  Had it not been for a PET scan ordered by another of Mom's doctors, the cancer would have come back and things would have gotten worse for my little family here in Miami.  The surgery is scheduled for the 18th, and hopefully this new surgeon will do a better and more thorough job this time around.

Mom, as you can well imagine, isn't exactly a happy camper about this. She's already had to deal with the debilitating effects of a condition named "watermelon stomach" since late 2005, and this whole cancer crap, she says, is the fault of both the surgeon's lethargic reaction and her Primary Care Physician's somewhat puzzling "wait and see" attitude whiich allowed the original cancerous growth to grow from a boil-sized blip to something about twice as long as my index finger.  She's tired most of the time, doesn't eat well, sleeps little and worries a great deal.

Healthwise, I'm a bit better physically. I've gained some weight - six pounds over the past five months or so - and I am getting some exercise during the day.  I do get a bit over-anxious at times over things I shouldn't be so stressed about, and way over-anxious over things I am expected to worry about (such as my Mom's health) but have no control over.  Because of this, my energy levels and abilty to concentrate fluctuate wildly; one day I'll feel pretty good and able to get a lot done in a typical work day, then the next I'll be tied up in the proverbial knot trying to choose what project to work on or how to put words together in a coherent fashion to get a point effectively across.

As for writing-related stuff....On Friday I received my first payment from Viewpoints; the check was a bit larger than the $32.00 I was expecting...maybe it was the company's way to make it up to me for a lost check, because I only have 43 reviews on the site right now and, as I might have mentioned in a previous blog entry on the topic, we only get $1.00 per review.  I almost e-mailed Jolie, the company's vice president, to ask why I was getting $64 instead of $32, but decided not to push my luck and find out that it was a clerical error or something.  As it is, I almost didn't get any check at all because I forgot to send Viewpoints a completed and signed W-9 form. 

Additionally, today I received my check for February's round of reviews, which was a grand total of $4 for the month.  That happens to be the bare minimum of payable reviews for one month, so if I want to earn more money this month I better not get too distracted by the Epinons $10-for-10 promo and give Viewpoints some equal time and effort.  Last month I wrote 20 Epinions reviews in order to get $40 in my Income Share account, and only did four at Viewpoints.  Sure, the Epinions payout is bigger, but Viewpoints sends out checks every month....Argh. Decisions, decisions.

At least today I did my third review for the month at Viewpoints; at this rate, maybe I can write at least 10 in March.  I know one thing for sure...I'd better write more than four, otherwise I'm never going to make any headway financially...at least not at that site.