Mom's Story

This blog is about my mom. I thought I would tell you about her. She is 59. She loves to live. She loves to laugh. She loves to smile and make others smile around her. She loves a good joke. She loves her family. Her family is the reason she does most things. She loves to craft and create. She has several original craft pieces in her repertoire. She makes Santa's, Snowmen, and Raggedy Anne's. Her favorite color is Green, rich deep green. She loves Christmas and spoils her kids and grand kids shamelessly. She adores my dad. He is the love of her life. She always told us growing up that she loved us, but dad always comes first. And he did. She drives school bus. She loves to keep tabs on the kids on her route. She lives on a farm. A city girl turned country. She is a sports fanatic. She watches the Tri-City Americans Hockey team any chance she gets. And has admitted to watching Hockey on TV in the last few years. She also loves to watch my niece Kiaya in Gymnastics. She is always telling me how Kiaya is doing. She loves her home. She is religious and loves her Father in Heaven. She knows of His kind and tender mercies. Most of all she is my mom and now she is my mom with Cancer.




My mom's medical problems started a few months ago. She found out she had high blood pressure. High blood pressure in and of itself is nothing to be too worried about. She started on medication and seemed as if all was fine. Then she got a sinus infection. She hates doctors so to get her to even go in for an antibiotic was like dragging an elephant over a sand dune. But she finally did and the meds made her very sick. From there, she figured she got the flu because she started throwing up. She threw up for three weeks before going in and finding out what was wrong. That elephant thing again. During this time as well she found out she has cataracts so she can't see anything either. We found out her gall bladder needed to be taken out so the surgery happened and she was feeling better for two whole days before she started to throw up again. She went back into the hospital and realized that her bowels had not been working for the three weeks she was sick. She lost 35 pounds in those three weeks from lack of eating. So, they did a lower body scan to make sure there was not an obstruction. During this scan they found a mass in her lower back by the tail bone and a mass in the lung. (I don't know which lung, I don't really think it matters, it's there and a spot as well.) During the next week that mom spent in the hospital trying to get her bowels to work again the Dr's did more scans to see what we were dealing with. They did a biopsy on the lung and told us we were dealing with Adenocarcinoma Cancer (soft tissue cancer) that is in the lung. So now you're thinking my mom is a smoker. Well, she isn't. Never has. Unfortunately about 10-15% of lung cancer happens in people who have never smoked or been around smokers.




We also found out she had some striations and lesions on the bones. So we knew for sure we were dealing with a cancer that has spread to multiple places in the body. At this time it came out that mom has cataracts and that some of her pressure points didn't add up with the eye doctor so he could do the cataract surgery. That sent off alarms for the Dr's at the hospital and they did a Head CT. They found three tumors in the frontal lobe of mom's brain. She did not present normally for brain tumors, especially since she had three of them. She has had headaches off and on for a while. They tend to go up and down in their intensity. Most people with tumors get a low grade headache and that headache never goes away, it just gets worse and worse as the pressure from the tumors builds in the head. Mom never had this problem. Non the less, the tumors are still there. In fact when she started the blood pressure medication the headaches became less frequent. We figured we had that problem licked because headaches can be a sign of high blood pressure. We were wrong. The Dr's started her on Radiation for fifteen days. She has had a high dosage and aggressive form of radiation. She is now done with that as of today.




After more scans and looking for more information we also found some nodules on the Thyroid. The Dr's then biopsied the Thyroid to see if we had lung cancer that had spread that far or if we were dealing with two kinds of cancer. This is very rare by the way. Most people only have one form of cancer and that cancer spreads to the lymph nodes and then throughout the body like mom's has. However, my mom likes to be unique and so is the case with her medical condition. They found out we were dealing with two forms of cancer, Lung and Thyroid. The problem we were having at this point is trying to figure out which one started first and which one had spread or if both had spread. During this time mom started to have some Jackson Seizures. These seizures are fairly severe. They wear her out and make her whole body go rigid. I was with her when she had one of the first ones. It was scary to say the least. We got her into the hospital again and ran some more tests to make sure we weren't dealing with something new. We weren't and the Dr's gave her more meds to take. (At this point she has had more and more instead of less and less. She is currently on three types of seizure medication. My brother Joe was with her last week and the worse day mom had she had eight seizures. The Dr's are 95% sure these seizures are caused by the tumors and the toxicity of the radiation treatments.)


Since mom kept having headaches and they kept getting worse Dr Geiver, radiologist, did another head scan. That scan told us some news none of us wanted to hear. Mom has Leptomeningial spread. That means she has free floating cancer cells in her brain fluid. This form of spread is very aggressive and if the chemo does not work we could be looking at only a few months with my mom. I choose to believe we can beat anything with the right attitude. I think my family feels the same way, but we are all very realistic. We know not everyone beats cancer. We just choose to believe we can be one of those families that does.





A PET Scan (from the neck down) was done to make sure we didn't miss anything. We didn't. That is the extent of the masses, striations, nodules, things in her body. Unfortunately that is not the end of her diagnosis. After doing a blood test to see what protein the cancer was giving off the Oncologist found out we are dealing with breast cancer. Breast Cancer? There is nothing in the breast!! Well again, my mom likes to be unique. In very rare instances breast cancer will settle in the Lymph Node system first instead of the breast. This seems to be the case with my mom. At the same time this blood work was done mom had a back puncture done to biopsy the mass in the lower back, place a chemo plug in the spine and drain a little spinal fluid to help with the sever headaches she was then experiencing. Intrathecal Chemo Therapy is the only way to do chemo on the brain to get rid of the free floating cancer cells. We won't know for a few weeks yet if that did any good or not or if she will need more.




After the breast cancer was found the Oncologist finally decided we had enough information to start Chemo Therapy. They are giving her a special cocktail that should catch the lung and the breast cancer. Yes, lung cancer has not been totally ruled out yet and I'm not sure we know what was found out about the mass in the lower back. I'm just glad the chemo has started. As for the Thyroid cancer the Oncologist now believes it is a spread from the breast cancer. So now you know the story.





Today the latest is this. She went into the hospital again on Sunday night (March 29, 2009) because she had three seizures in a row. Dr Washington (neurologist) wanted to get a seizure on an EEG. That didn't happen. But again, they are 95% sure the seizures are due to the tumors and the radiation. These two things cause swelling and pressure in the brain and in two weeks time we should see a difference as the side affects go away. She is however too weak to come home. She is going through physical therapy in the hospital to get her legs stronger and the rest of her body. My brother Derrick who is with her this week said she is to the point that she can't even roll over in bed by herself. This so so not my mom. She is a mover and a shaker and if she was aware of her surroundings and the fact she is in the hospital she would not be happy. All of the medications she is on have made her groggy and a little more than a little out of it. We are hoping this will subside as the side affects of radiation subside. However, she is so much better being where she is. She is done with radiation as I mentioned and she has weeks of chemo left, but we are on our way to helping mom get better. All prayers and thoughts are appreciated and we thank you in advance for your love and support. This blog is set up mainly to let our family and friends know what is happening on a regular basis, but we appreciate your participation and insight.




Funny Things Mom has said or talked about:

Chocolate Covered Pickles. Yes, mom wanted Chocolate Covered Pickles and she was sure my Aunt Vickie had the recipe. While trying to find out what mom was talking about my sister Heather asked several questions including the shape of these chocolate covered pickles. Needless to say my mom told her they were the same shape and size as a certain male body part. Sorry if this makes you blush, but it is the truth. On top of that she called my aunt to get the recipe and make us all sorry we were questioning her. In the conversation a family dinner was being planned because my sister Ketra was in town, to take care of mom, and so mom needed Vickie's help to organize the troops. She asked Vickie about the pickles and Vickie knew they had made some chocolate covered pretzels at Christmas time and proceeded to tell mom the recipe for those. It took Almond Bark and pretzels. So mom said great we can have chocolate covered pickles, almond bark and a few salads for the family dinner. And as they were ending the conversation mom decided Cream Cheese would go well with all of that. Needless to say my sister Ketra was laughing her head off listening to this conversation. The funniest part of this whole story is the fact that my mom does not want to become her mom. My grandmother has dementia. She is currently in a nursing home for people with Alzheimer's. This little moment about Chocolate Covered Pickles has brought out the Grandma in mom. A little more to the story is that my son's friend was over for dinner the day after this conversation took place. We were having grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. So we had pickles on the table. My daughter Sarah was asking for the third time if she could have a pickle and Courtney made the comment that we knew Sarah would never go crazy. I asked why that was? Because of the pickles? Courtney informed me that pickles are high in vitamin K and that helps with not going crazy. Without missing a beat my husband, Bruce, said, "No wonder why your mom wanted pickles." And in the immortal words of Paul Harvey, "Now you know the rest of the story."




In a lucid moment with our good friend Stacey mom explained what she was talking about. She remembered making pretzels with Vickie and my cousin who was there grabbed a pickle off a relish tray they were snacking on and a chocolate covered pretzel and popped them both in her mouth at the same time and made the comment, "Wow, that was pretty good." Mom was just stuck on that part of the memory and couldn't get the rest of the information out. I figure Heavenly Father knew we would need moments like this to keep the humor in our lives. Like I said, mom loves to laugh and when we tell her of this experience there will be much rolling in the isles, and shaking of bellies.