A trying time...
Well - it's been a while since I've written anything but I'm not sure it matters cause I don't think anyone reads this besides me anyway. Oh well...on with the blog.
In February my mom felt like she had pneumonia. I wanted her to go to the ER to get checked out but she refused telling me that she'd call the doctor the next day and get herself a doctors appointment. She called on February 6 and got an appointment for February 7. The doctor did a chest x-ray and discovered that my mom did in fact have pneumonia...having had it before in 2003...I guess it was fairly easy for my mom to detect. Unfortunately, something else showed up on that x-ray that the doctor was concerned about but didn't want to worry us with until they knew more so she put my mom on antibiotics and waited 2 weeks. She then wanted my mom to go have a CT scan of her lungs...my mom HATES CT scans but went along with the doctors request...unfortunately, the CT scan showed the same thing as the first chest x-ray from February 7...my mom had a tumor the size of a quarter on the right lung and 2 small spots on the left lung. This lead us to see Dr. Marklin a lung specialist on March 16 - he discussed with us the concerns that they had but wanted us to know that more than likely, these spots were scar tissue left over from the pneumonia but they wanted to biopsy the large one anyway just to make sure. He scheduled my mom's biopsy for March 23 so we had to wait another week to know more. On March 23, mom had her biopsy...she was scared but dad, Liz, Heather and I were there with her and prayed with her before she went in. Dr. Marklin said that I should call on March 27 for the results. On March 27 I called Dr. Marklin at 9:30am...deciding NOT to shower until he called me cause I KNEW if I got in the shower...he'd call (doesn't that ALWAYS happen!?!). Well obviously his office didn't give him the message that I had called because at 1:30 he still hadn't called me. I decided to give him another call...they said he was at lunch but he would call me as soon as he was done. At 2:08 Dr. Marklin called...how could I remember the precise time??? I was working and had to logout at that time for the call. Dr. Marklin explained that out of ALL the slides they looked at...the very LAST slided did show lung cancer - adenocarcinoma (cancer from second hand smoke). This was very sad news for our family as my aunt Margaret (my mom's sister) had lung cancer last year and died from it...it was devastating for our family so this news hit us like a ton of bricks.
I was not looking forward to the calls that I had to make...first to mom to tell her what the doctor had said, then tell my dad, then my sister and my cousin Shirley, my husband, my daughter, my son, all of my mom's siblings, my close friends and anyone else that I thought might want to know...it was TOUGH!!!
The doctor said that cancer loves glucose (sugar - which I already knew but was glad to have a SMART doctor who also knew this!) so he wanted mom to have a PET scan where they would shoot her body full of sugar, water with dye that would go straight to the cancer and light up anywhere the cancer would be. We went on Friday, March 30 for the PET scan and will have the results on Tuesday...another time to wait.
Until then, I just wanted to get this down so I could get it all off my chest.
My mom has not smoked 1 single day in her life but may have lung cancer from second hand smoke...that STINKS!!!
In February my mom felt like she had pneumonia. I wanted her to go to the ER to get checked out but she refused telling me that she'd call the doctor the next day and get herself a doctors appointment. She called on February 6 and got an appointment for February 7. The doctor did a chest x-ray and discovered that my mom did in fact have pneumonia...having had it before in 2003...I guess it was fairly easy for my mom to detect. Unfortunately, something else showed up on that x-ray that the doctor was concerned about but didn't want to worry us with until they knew more so she put my mom on antibiotics and waited 2 weeks. She then wanted my mom to go have a CT scan of her lungs...my mom HATES CT scans but went along with the doctors request...unfortunately, the CT scan showed the same thing as the first chest x-ray from February 7...my mom had a tumor the size of a quarter on the right lung and 2 small spots on the left lung. This lead us to see Dr. Marklin a lung specialist on March 16 - he discussed with us the concerns that they had but wanted us to know that more than likely, these spots were scar tissue left over from the pneumonia but they wanted to biopsy the large one anyway just to make sure. He scheduled my mom's biopsy for March 23 so we had to wait another week to know more. On March 23, mom had her biopsy...she was scared but dad, Liz, Heather and I were there with her and prayed with her before she went in. Dr. Marklin said that I should call on March 27 for the results. On March 27 I called Dr. Marklin at 9:30am...deciding NOT to shower until he called me cause I KNEW if I got in the shower...he'd call (doesn't that ALWAYS happen!?!). Well obviously his office didn't give him the message that I had called because at 1:30 he still hadn't called me. I decided to give him another call...they said he was at lunch but he would call me as soon as he was done. At 2:08 Dr. Marklin called...how could I remember the precise time??? I was working and had to logout at that time for the call. Dr. Marklin explained that out of ALL the slides they looked at...the very LAST slided did show lung cancer - adenocarcinoma (cancer from second hand smoke). This was very sad news for our family as my aunt Margaret (my mom's sister) had lung cancer last year and died from it...it was devastating for our family so this news hit us like a ton of bricks.
I was not looking forward to the calls that I had to make...first to mom to tell her what the doctor had said, then tell my dad, then my sister and my cousin Shirley, my husband, my daughter, my son, all of my mom's siblings, my close friends and anyone else that I thought might want to know...it was TOUGH!!!
The doctor said that cancer loves glucose (sugar - which I already knew but was glad to have a SMART doctor who also knew this!) so he wanted mom to have a PET scan where they would shoot her body full of sugar, water with dye that would go straight to the cancer and light up anywhere the cancer would be. We went on Friday, March 30 for the PET scan and will have the results on Tuesday...another time to wait.
Until then, I just wanted to get this down so I could get it all off my chest.
My mom has not smoked 1 single day in her life but may have lung cancer from second hand smoke...that STINKS!!!
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