Oncology visit

We were able to meet with Moms oncologist, Dr. John Ward, who happens to be good friends with a childhood friend of Dads, The Platts. He and his team met with us and gave us the plan for the next few weeks. We are still on the 'healing' phase of things and will be for another two weeks, but after that we will be able to begin Moms chemo treatments. In two weeks Mom will go in for what is called a PET scan. This is a specific scan which will cover her entire body, head to toe, seeking out all of the cancer cells in her body to let them know what they are starting with. Then after her 1st round of Chemo they will repeat her scan to see if the treatments are working. Right now Dr. Ward said her chemo treatments will be on an out patient basis unless something changes after Her PET scan. Her physician was very honest and positive at the same time. He let Mom know that this type of cancer is extremely rare, with less than 7000 cases last year. He also let Her know that this type of cancer was not acquired via something she did or didn't do with her diet or lifestyle. This type of cancer is also not hereditary, or genetic. So, we are now going to go forward with this and help Mom out as she heals.

The Story - Until Now

The past couple of months Mom had been suffering a lot of pain.  After a lot of waiting and going from doctor to doctor and diagnosis to diagnosis, she was ultimately told that she had a non-cancerous cyst on her small intestine.  She needed to have it removed, and then things would get back to normal. 

On February 7, Mom went into surgery to have the non-cancerous cyst removed from her small intestine. Before the surgery was over, though, the surgeon met with us in a conference room to break the news: What they thought was a non-cancerous cyst turned out to be Stage IV Duodenal Cancer - an inoperable tumor in her small intestine, with the cancer spreading to a couple spots on her liver.  The surgeon did what she could to deaden the nerves around the tumor to ease the pain Mom had been feeling the past couple of months, and then closed things up.  While the surgeon didn't have all the answers we were looking for, she gave us a plan:  Get Mom healed from surgery, and then tackle the cancer with chemotherapy. 

We are presently working on the "get Mom healed" part of the plan.  She was released from the hospital after 1 1/2 weeks, but after a few days at home, she had a surgery-related infection, and so has been back in the hospital for the past few days to get the infection under control. 

We are still waiting to receive results from the pathology tests to know exactly what Mom has on her plate.  In the meantime, we are doing all that we can to let Mom know how much we love and appreciate her.  She has done everything for everyone her whole life.  Now it's her turn to let us help her! 

Welcome to the Blog

We have created this blog to provide a place where everyone can go for up-to-date information on Mom and her situation.  Everyone in the family is invited to post updates after acquiring any new information, such as doctors appointments (when they are, if you learn of them, and how they went, if you were with Mom at the appointment), how Mom is feeling, any experiences you have with Mom, etc.  If you learn of any information but don't have time or don't feel like getting on the computer to post it, you can call Allison (801-870-9992) and tell her the information, and she'd be happy to post the information for you. 

In addition to this blog, Natalie has created a Google calendar (she has invited everyone to it...if you didn't receive an invite, or are unsure how to use it, talk with Natalie).  There is a link to the calendar, called "Mom's Google Calendar," in two places (for your convenience):  (1) under the title near the top of the blog, and (2) above Mom's photo on the side of the blog.  (If there are any problems with the link, feel free to fix the problem or let us know and we'll try to fix the problem - we're not blog experts.)  Please use the calendar to indicate when Mom has appointments, when you are available and plan to sit with Mom, or any other calendar-applicable event.  Hopefully the calendar will help us make sure that Mom has the personal care she needs without putting undue burden on any one of us.  So please - check the calendar frequently and volunteer yourself whenever you can if you see white space on the calendar. 

If you have any questions about this blog or the calendar, call Brett, Allison, or Natalie.  We hope this will work to keep everyone on the same page.  Wish us luck!