I have decided to record Mom's journey through her illness. Since I have not started before today I will have to go back and edit when something comes back to my sieve of a memory.
Today Mom had her first radiation treatment. She tolerated the treatment well. Side-effects and after-effects vary from one patient to another and they gave us the whole list. So far the only one that has happened is that she is totally wiped. In my mind this is a good sign because we heal as we sleep.
Last year Mom was able to give up her home oxygen for 6 months and during that time we went to Australia to see Diarmid and Jenn and family. Then she went to Kitimat in June to spend some time with Lor & Emily and help Lor out with child care for the summer. Suddenly in mid-August her breathing deteriorated and she decided to come home so that she could use her oxygen again. Her breathing gradually worse and then just before Christmas she had a couple of episodes of hemoptysis(coughing up blood in her sputum). This didn't stop her from making scones for the entire hospital staff. She did this 2 dozen scones at a time, having them ready for me to take in when I went to work at 0730. This involved 8 or 10 different days, usually 2 or 3 days a week.
Christmas was pretty tiring for her even though everyone who came for dinner helped out. I was in Victoria with Kevin so she had to do all the preparations by herself. And she does like to make Christmas fancy.
January brought a little more decrease in activity, partly due to the weather. Last year she would have done some snow-shovelling, this year I don't think that she did any at all. But she was still feeling pretty good and optomistic that she could give up her oxygen again this year and we started to plan a short trip to England. Mom wanted to visit her one surviving first cousin, Frank Symes and family and see a few more sights and relatives. We are avid fans of "Doc Martin" and would love to see Port Isaac in Cornwall where the show is filmed, and no journey to England would be complete without a visit with Brenda and Richard Hufton, now in Dorset.
The plan started out as a 10 day trip but soon had to be lengthened to almost 3 weeks in order to accommodate all of the people and places that we had in mind. There was a period of longing to even make a quick trip to Ireland - after all, if we are that close it would be a shame to miss it!
By the beginning of April Mom was realizing that she would not be able to give up her oxygen this year as last. Then our plans changed to driving to Saskatchewan to see Wanda & Hezz and her brother Tom & Frances and all the rest of the relatives that we could cram into 4 or 5 days. Following this we would drive to Terrace via Whitecourt to meet Mom's newest great grandson, Liam. We thought that we could arrive in Terrace just as school finished in June and spend a few days there.
Then her hip started to hurt. She thought that it was pretty much the same pain that she had had in the past and that if she started doing the exercises again, the pain would go away just as it had several times in the past. But the pain didn't abate and she then went to the doctor hoping to get xrays before visiting the chiropractor - after all, those bones are 13 years older than the last time the chiropractor worked his magic on them.
Xrays complete she went to the chiropractor a couple of times. After the first treatment her hip became so sore that she could no longer weight-bear so I brought home a walker from the hospital and she needed to use that to get aroung. After the next treatment her hip improved, but the way that she had to lay on the table gave her incredible pain in her ribs. She was incapacitated for a couple of days and decided not to go back.
Then she needed a prescription renewal and went back to her physician who, after hearing her history decided to do more xrays and some blood work. These tests invited more, as well as the referral to an internal medicine specialist. She ended up having a chest CT scan, a nuclear medicine bone scan and a skeletal survey (xrays of all long bones and skull and chest).
When the internist received some of the test results she arranged for Mom's consultation appointment was moved up by 2 weeks. Following the consultation the internist arranged for a skull CT, a mammogram and a bone marrow biopsy.
May 26 was the day that we went for the bone marrow biopsy. The doctor gave us the devastating news that Mom has lung cancer that has metastasized to the liver and bones. The only good news was that she felt that the bone marrow biopsy and mammogram were unnecessary. She arranged for a CT guided biopsy of the lung tumor and was referring Mom for radiation therapy.
Mom was feeling rather mortal and we called to give the family the bad news. Wanda came for a few days and is returning next week. Al Reed came for a very short visit - from 0900 to 1400 one day, Lor and Emily came for about a week and left when we came to Kelowna. Kevin came for a weekend.
So here we are, only 6 weeks after the first doctor visit, in Kelowna having radiation therapy. This morning we met Dr Hoegler and she had a simulation scan which involved making marks on her torso as well as a tattoo(!!!) for landmarking the radiation treatments. Then followed the first treatment. After being released for the day we decided to take a bit of a drive and went over the very new bridge. It is only the same 2 lanes in each direction and we wonder how that is going to help traffic congestion here in Kelowna. Then all of a sudden Mom just was exhausted and we came back home to our motel and she just fell into bed for the rest of the day.
Today Mom had her first radiation treatment. She tolerated the treatment well. Side-effects and after-effects vary from one patient to another and they gave us the whole list. So far the only one that has happened is that she is totally wiped. In my mind this is a good sign because we heal as we sleep.
Last year Mom was able to give up her home oxygen for 6 months and during that time we went to Australia to see Diarmid and Jenn and family. Then she went to Kitimat in June to spend some time with Lor & Emily and help Lor out with child care for the summer. Suddenly in mid-August her breathing deteriorated and she decided to come home so that she could use her oxygen again. Her breathing gradually worse and then just before Christmas she had a couple of episodes of hemoptysis(coughing up blood in her sputum). This didn't stop her from making scones for the entire hospital staff. She did this 2 dozen scones at a time, having them ready for me to take in when I went to work at 0730. This involved 8 or 10 different days, usually 2 or 3 days a week.
Christmas was pretty tiring for her even though everyone who came for dinner helped out. I was in Victoria with Kevin so she had to do all the preparations by herself. And she does like to make Christmas fancy.
January brought a little more decrease in activity, partly due to the weather. Last year she would have done some snow-shovelling, this year I don't think that she did any at all. But she was still feeling pretty good and optomistic that she could give up her oxygen again this year and we started to plan a short trip to England. Mom wanted to visit her one surviving first cousin, Frank Symes and family and see a few more sights and relatives. We are avid fans of "Doc Martin" and would love to see Port Isaac in Cornwall where the show is filmed, and no journey to England would be complete without a visit with Brenda and Richard Hufton, now in Dorset.
The plan started out as a 10 day trip but soon had to be lengthened to almost 3 weeks in order to accommodate all of the people and places that we had in mind. There was a period of longing to even make a quick trip to Ireland - after all, if we are that close it would be a shame to miss it!
By the beginning of April Mom was realizing that she would not be able to give up her oxygen this year as last. Then our plans changed to driving to Saskatchewan to see Wanda & Hezz and her brother Tom & Frances and all the rest of the relatives that we could cram into 4 or 5 days. Following this we would drive to Terrace via Whitecourt to meet Mom's newest great grandson, Liam. We thought that we could arrive in Terrace just as school finished in June and spend a few days there.
Then her hip started to hurt. She thought that it was pretty much the same pain that she had had in the past and that if she started doing the exercises again, the pain would go away just as it had several times in the past. But the pain didn't abate and she then went to the doctor hoping to get xrays before visiting the chiropractor - after all, those bones are 13 years older than the last time the chiropractor worked his magic on them.
Xrays complete she went to the chiropractor a couple of times. After the first treatment her hip became so sore that she could no longer weight-bear so I brought home a walker from the hospital and she needed to use that to get aroung. After the next treatment her hip improved, but the way that she had to lay on the table gave her incredible pain in her ribs. She was incapacitated for a couple of days and decided not to go back.
Then she needed a prescription renewal and went back to her physician who, after hearing her history decided to do more xrays and some blood work. These tests invited more, as well as the referral to an internal medicine specialist. She ended up having a chest CT scan, a nuclear medicine bone scan and a skeletal survey (xrays of all long bones and skull and chest).
When the internist received some of the test results she arranged for Mom's consultation appointment was moved up by 2 weeks. Following the consultation the internist arranged for a skull CT, a mammogram and a bone marrow biopsy.
May 26 was the day that we went for the bone marrow biopsy. The doctor gave us the devastating news that Mom has lung cancer that has metastasized to the liver and bones. The only good news was that she felt that the bone marrow biopsy and mammogram were unnecessary. She arranged for a CT guided biopsy of the lung tumor and was referring Mom for radiation therapy.
Mom was feeling rather mortal and we called to give the family the bad news. Wanda came for a few days and is returning next week. Al Reed came for a very short visit - from 0900 to 1400 one day, Lor and Emily came for about a week and left when we came to Kelowna. Kevin came for a weekend.
So here we are, only 6 weeks after the first doctor visit, in Kelowna having radiation therapy. This morning we met Dr Hoegler and she had a simulation scan which involved making marks on her torso as well as a tattoo(!!!) for landmarking the radiation treatments. Then followed the first treatment. After being released for the day we decided to take a bit of a drive and went over the very new bridge. It is only the same 2 lanes in each direction and we wonder how that is going to help traffic congestion here in Kelowna. Then all of a sudden Mom just was exhausted and we came back home to our motel and she just fell into bed for the rest of the day.
More in hopefully shorter episodes.
