Mom

My mother has been diagnosed with Cancer.


 She had been having abdominal pain for about 6 weeks when she finally went to the doctor. A CT was obtained with that fateful call on Friday afternoon with the news that it looks like widespread cancer in her abdomen. The following Friday was her appointment with the Gynecology Oncologist - the most experienced of only 6 in the state of Nebraska with this specialized title. He said "it's not an emergency, but we are going to get you scheduled for surgery next week." She was scheduled for Wednesday, just 1.5 weeks after that CT scan was performed. That was 2 days ago.

 It's Friday night now. I've been with my mother in the hospital since her surgery with Dr. Morris Wednesday afternoon. He is a good doctor. She has had a rough go of it, with extreme pain in post-op recovery, requiring large doses of narcotics. She was in recovery for almost 3 hours before getting to the floor, and it was only there that she was able to get some rest. Her hospital course has been complicated with severe gas pain, nausea, vomiting, near fainting, and low O2 levels. She was initially doing better, but has declined throughout today, vomiting 3-4 x today with little to no intake of food and water. She is back on IV fluids and meds and as an ileus.

 Her cancer is described in the CT as omental caking, and widespread peritoneal carcinomatosis. It was thought that she likely had ovarian cancer, but during surgery when the ovaries were visualized, they were essentially unaffected. This is most likely a primary peritoneal carcinoma, biopsies pending. He took out the fallopian tubes, ovaries, the omentum, and as much of the remaining tumor as possible. He removed 90-95% of the tumor burden. She is without mets to other organs such as spleen, liver, etc. It seems to all be contained in the abdominal cavity. Even so, this nasty disease sneaks up on a person and by the time they have any symptoms, it is advanced.

 The doctor says this is not ovarian cancer, but an "ovarian type of cancer," usually more amenable to chemotherapy. This is good news, but I have yet to know what the outcome/survival rates are. I have been too chicken to ask. Work has been very kind to me, rescheduling all my patients and letting me be gone during this challenging time. My focus and ability to concentrate is definitely affected, so I am glad I am not seeing patients at the moment. I'm sitting on a chair, next to mom's hospital bed, using her heating pad to warm my legs that are next to hers in bed. She woke up vomiting about 30 min ago, desperate to sit up immediately. She generally feels miserable with a distended abdomen, incisional pain, gas pain, shoulder pain, back pain, and this relentless nausea. She grabs her vomit sack (as I call it) and moans. I've never seen her so sick. She tells me she has never been so sick. Its so hard to see someone you love so miserable. This has been so stressful, not only for me, but for her as well.

 It's Sunday morning now. They had to put an NG tube to decompress the stomach last night. They got 1400cc out immediately! (Imagine that much fluid just sitting in your abdomen for days) Her abdominal distention is going down, and she hasn't had to vomit all night, and has been able to get some rest. Initially, we thought we would probably be going home yesterday or today, but it will more likely be Monday if all goes well with this ileus. She has had some good bowel sounds today, so we are hopeful.