My mom HAD cancer.

Well. It's been quite a few years. Mom is doing fine now. Early last year she had a double knee replacement, we think partially because of the chemo, partially because of bad knees. But she's doing great now.
I'm hopefully getting ready to graduate this year. I'll have my PhD!

Good luck to anybody who's going through rough times out there.

Scar tissue. Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated. I guess you just take for granted when things go right. Mom is doing great. She is back to work, full time most days. She is still on blood thinner but she is doing well. She has grown her hair back, and would you believe it came back CURLY. I mean, old lady at the beauty shop curly! She has had the straightest hair for her entire life and I cant believe how curly it is. Also, it's black and white. Again, she's had brown hair (turning gray though) for her whole life. However, she has now dyed it, and it's a brownish reddish shade.

I hope this blog helps someone out there who is going through what she went through.

SOOOO long time. Well, yesterday she called and said that she felt a "lump" or a mass of tissue under her scar that didn't feel right. I told her to call the doctor and she did. She has an appointment today. I hope it's just scar tissue.

She's doing really well. Getting stronger everyday. We got her a computer for christmas and she's been burning up the net with it every day! I am so glad she likes it, I know it keeps her from being bored. She even knows how to use instant messenger!

Today is my last day at work. Grad school starts monday. Welcome to a new chapter in my life.

The muscle spasms are all but gone. She is sleeping now. It hurts to ride in the car she says but it's not near as bad as it was. She has officially stopped radiation. My grandmother had a round in the hospital for the last few days. She was nauseated, vomitted, had chest pain and was a little confused. When she got to the hospital they determined that she was low in potassium and possibly had a virus??? Nobody really knows, but a potassium deficiency can cause all those things. She felt better after they gave her potassium IV.

Mom sent me a letter yesterday apologizing for being mean in the hospital. I didn't think anything about her being a pain in the butt, it was the medicine. She also sent me $20. SHe didn't need to do that!

She is feeling better. The muscle spasms are getting less and less. It still hurts to breathe, because pleurisy is so painful. Her family doctor told her that he thought the radiation oncologist was being a bit "overly aggressive" with the radiation anyway, and that he didn't see a problem with her quitting. He also said that if she hadn't already had 20+ treatments and if she had had any positive lymph nodes then he would recommend her continue radiation. But he said it was ok for her to stop. So... she's done. No more cancer treatments. BUT, what she is dealing with now is this stupid blood clot, so she's on blood thinners for a while. Now, if you're reading this and are now officially scared to death about radiation, don't be. This spasming and pain doesn't occur in a lot of people. Mom was fortunate to have a really good go-round with her chemotherapy, meaning she didn't get too sick, and some people get deathly ill on chemo. Her hurdle was the radiation, which I thought would be the easiest part. She is ready to resume a normal life now. Let's hope she gets better and better every day.

Flew back friday. She hasn't slept more than a couple of hours a night since the surgery. She is trying her darndest not to have to take pain medication. SHe is still having the recurring muscle spasms. She told me that she is going to quit radiation. She's done about 20-24 treatments...and only needed like 10 more to finish. She is going to her family doctor today to "coordinate" this whole thing with him, and she's going to ask him about quitting. Her risk of recurrance will rise if she quits, but she is so tired of hurting every single minute she doesn't want to do it anymore.

Ok, back.
Found out Wednesday that she not only has the blood clot, but she also has pleuresy in that lung. From Monday to Thursday she was hurting so bad that they had to keep her "doped up" out of her mind to help the pain. She didnt know who she was, where she was, what day it was....nothing. She told funny, but after a while, annoying stories and made up things constantly. She told me that my aunt went home crying..... she asked if this was the day she adopted the baby.... constant state of retardation.
She had risky surgery on thursday (risky b/c of the chance of the blood clot moving during surgery). I flew into memphis and got there JUST in time to see her... we had to go down to the pre anesthesia unit to see her. She was hurting. After the surgery I spent the night there with her, it was a rough night. Pain shots every couple of hours, no sleep. She hurt every day and had to have pain shots daily.
She was emotional, she was mean, she was asleep when she needed to eat... She was a very difficult patient. She finally got out of the hospital monday. She hurts mostly because of the pleuresy, but there are still muscle spasms, which was the initial problem. She is still doing daily radiation and staying at my grandparents' house at night. I'm flying back on friday.