The Return of Evil....... CANCER

There is a reason I have not blogged lately.

I STRONGLY DISLIKE HATE CANCER!!!!  Hate is such a strong word and Kyle and I do not allow our children to use it, but that is exactly how I feel about cancer.

Mama has been in the hospital since November 22nd.  She was at Flowers in Dothan for one week and then transferred to UAB.  She has been having abdominal pain for a while now and went to 3 different doctors about it.  The first one we went to was actually her oncology Dr.  He did a CT scan and everything was clear.  Then we went to another Dr and he ordered xrays and they were all clear.  Lastly she went to a digestive Dr (which by the way she called and got an appt the very next day.  That is a God thing.  Usually you have to wait over a month for an appointment) and he told her that she had an infection in her intestines.  That was on Thursday the 21st.  He prescribed her an antibiotic and told her she should start improving over the next few days.  By Friday morning she couldn't move hardly and was throwing up.  My uncle called the digestive Dr and they said if she continued then bring her to the ER.  That's exactly what happened Friday night.  They admitted her and told her she had a mechanical obstruction of her intestines.  They inserted a tube down her nose to her stomach to drain what was not going through.

Kyle was still at work,  but thankfully it was the weekend and Tyler was able to stay the night with her and we would visit during the day.  If I couldn't come then I would facetime.
 

She was on a NPO (means nothing by mouth) diet.  Which was okay because she wasn't hungry anyway from all that was in her stomach.  We realized how serious it was when the sign on the door kept changing dates......

Heidi loved going to the hospital and hanging out with Babee.

Even with them doing all that they were doing at Flowers, she was not getting any better.  They decided to take her tube out......

..... which was great.  We really thought things were progressing.  Kyle got in on Thanksgiving Day and that evening I went to stay with her.  One of the doctors there decided to do a CA125 test after going through her charts and looking at her xrays and scans.  The next morning (Friday Nov 28) he came in and acted like he had seen a ghost.  He was talking fast, stuttering, and was really acting very nervous.  He told us that her CA125 levels were 1,011 and that raised a lot of concern for him that her cancer had returned.  Before her very first surgery February 4th, 2014, her levels were over 10,000.  After surgery they gradually kept coming down with the chemo.  It got to where 5 was her normal level when tested.  A "normal" person's level is 35 or below.  He said he recommended transferring her to UAB to her oncologist asap.  SO we were both crying, trying to understand what was happening, and pretty much scared to death.  They got all of the paper work together and her room set up at UAB and then discharged her.

Kyle thankfully insisted on going with us and driving us to UAB.  We have such a wonderful support system and family and friends at home that will help with the kids at the drop of a hat.

We got to UAB that evening and then the fun began.  The weekend dr and residents that came by kept telling us that it could be an infection which is why her levels were increased (yes that is possible, but deep down we knew that with Moms history that most likely it was not just an infection).  Little did we know, but UAB had not yet received the scan reports from Flowers.  We had to wait on a disc from radiology at Flowers before we could be discharged to take with us to UAB and then the stinking thing didn't even work.  SO UAB decided to do their own scans (thankfully) and CA125.  Her level was now 1,030. 

The cancer has returned.  

It is in her abdominal cavity which is causing swelling.  It was causing her kidneys to swell and interfering with the flow of one of her Urethra Tubes.  They decided the best thing to do was to put a stint in from her kidney to her bladder.  They did that procedure Tuesday and it was almost immediate pain relief for her back, but did not fix her stomach pain. Yesterday morning they started giving her a steroid to help with the stomach swelling.  As of this morning, the pain is much better.

Thankfully the cancer is not in any of her organs.  That is the good news in this.   She will hopefully come home soon and will continue the steroids and then we will go Wednesday for a chemo treatment.

Her last surgery was August 15th......  The Miracle Day!  She never did get full relief or the feel of a full recovery after surgery.  Her stomach really started hurting the end of September and by October we were calling Dr. Huh back.

Cancer is awful.  It just completely drains the person going through it and his/her family.  Although Mama is dreading more chemo, she is ready to get it started.  Just please pray for continued strength for her to fight this disease.  Also pray for comfort.  She has been suffering for a long time now and it would just be nice to see her comfortable.

Thank you for all your prayers and concerns.  We have had a lot of people message us wanting to know what was going on, so Mama and I decided that I needed to do a blog to let everyone know.