brentl
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- May 7, 1999
- Messages
- 2,921
Ok, here's the story.
My Mom and Dad have been married for more than 42 years. They have 3 kids, 2 sisters and myself,I'm the baby. About 12 years ago my Mom was told she had breast cancer. I was always the optimistic son, and felt that they caught the cancer early enough and she would be fine, and hey, for a bunch of years I was right.
Fast forward some years(spring 2004) my Mom was noticing that she had a cough that wouldn't go away, she thought maybe it was a sign that she should take a year away from tennis and spend it with the middle sister who was having a kid in August and recover from the cough. With the cough not going away they decided to go in for testing in the middle of April, they could see a mass on her liver but couldn't get at it for a biopsy. I was still optimistic about it being malignant, little did I know that breast cancer has a 40% rate of reacurance.
She was dianosed with terminal cancer of both a lung and her liver in very early May and she was told she had less than 2 years left. She came downstairs when they got back from the hospital and we held each other and balled and asked why? They decided to put her on a pill to try to help her because she had a problem with Chemotherapy years ago. It did nothing, and they felt that chemo could at least ensure her a better 2 years. What a mistake that was!
They attempted to perform the first chemo, but my Moms body wouldn't take it(don't know exactly what happened). The then decided to put her on Steroids the day before to help her system, and that was her ultimate downfall. After that first chemo treatment my Mom coudln't fall asleep for 2 days, must have been the steroids. When she finally came down, she slept for 2 days straight and woke with really yellow eyes. I guess that the treatment had screwed up her liver enough that it couldn't deal with bile.
The worst thing, now she has only months left and sleeps most of the time. I would do anything to come home one day and see her working in her garden and humming a tune.
As it sits now I've got a strong family and great memories, but I find myself crying at the weirdest things. Sounds, smells, the way people say things, all may couse me to tear up. I'm also doing a Powerpoint presentation as a tribute, it will be from me to my Mom, but even that's tough to do.
OK now that I'm close to tears, I want to ask people either going through this type of situation or may have gone through this, how do you deal with the pain?
Thanks for listening, every little bit help keep me sane!
Brent
My Mom and Dad have been married for more than 42 years. They have 3 kids, 2 sisters and myself,I'm the baby. About 12 years ago my Mom was told she had breast cancer. I was always the optimistic son, and felt that they caught the cancer early enough and she would be fine, and hey, for a bunch of years I was right.
Fast forward some years(spring 2004) my Mom was noticing that she had a cough that wouldn't go away, she thought maybe it was a sign that she should take a year away from tennis and spend it with the middle sister who was having a kid in August and recover from the cough. With the cough not going away they decided to go in for testing in the middle of April, they could see a mass on her liver but couldn't get at it for a biopsy. I was still optimistic about it being malignant, little did I know that breast cancer has a 40% rate of reacurance.
She was dianosed with terminal cancer of both a lung and her liver in very early May and she was told she had less than 2 years left. She came downstairs when they got back from the hospital and we held each other and balled and asked why? They decided to put her on a pill to try to help her because she had a problem with Chemotherapy years ago. It did nothing, and they felt that chemo could at least ensure her a better 2 years. What a mistake that was!
They attempted to perform the first chemo, but my Moms body wouldn't take it(don't know exactly what happened). The then decided to put her on Steroids the day before to help her system, and that was her ultimate downfall. After that first chemo treatment my Mom coudln't fall asleep for 2 days, must have been the steroids. When she finally came down, she slept for 2 days straight and woke with really yellow eyes. I guess that the treatment had screwed up her liver enough that it couldn't deal with bile.
The worst thing, now she has only months left and sleeps most of the time. I would do anything to come home one day and see her working in her garden and humming a tune.
As it sits now I've got a strong family and great memories, but I find myself crying at the weirdest things. Sounds, smells, the way people say things, all may couse me to tear up. I'm also doing a Powerpoint presentation as a tribute, it will be from me to my Mom, but even that's tough to do.
OK now that I'm close to tears, I want to ask people either going through this type of situation or may have gone through this, how do you deal with the pain?
Thanks for listening, every little bit help keep me sane!
Brent