Cancer. Again.

My mother's neck has been recovering nicely since her surgery, but during her recovery, she started experiencing lower back pain. She decided to call her doctor and ask for an MRI. That's when they discovered the malignant tumors. We think she has Multiple Myeloma, which is a pretty rotten kind of cancer to have. It starts in the blood, sometimes winds up in an organ, then spreads through the bones and manifests itself in the form of unexplainable fractures and tumors - both of which my mom has experienced since December. After we know the official type of cancer, we are getting her straight to Dana Farber. My hope is that she can go through radiation (and other treatments, as necessary) to eradicate the cancer from her body, then have her on a long-term management plan. There's a long road ahead, though, and it's going to be really crappy. I have moved beyond scared - maybe it's because we know for sure that it's cancer. I am now in "let's kick this thing's ass" mode. There are a lot of new treatments that are very promising for Multiple Myeloma. And she's under 60 and in reasonably good health otherwise, so this makes her a good candidate for something a little more experimental. Still, she'll have this for the rest of her life. There is no cure. It used to be that you could expect to live 2-3 years after diagnosis. Now, if you catch it early enough, you can live up to 10 years. Geraldine Ferraro has it and I think she's 10 years +, at this point. We are trying to remain cautiously optimistic and keep our sense of humor in tact. More on this as things develop.

Happy Christmas

My mother's surgery was a success! She went in on Christmas Eve day and will remain in the hospital for a few more days, but she is doing great! Her total recovery time will be about a month. The surgeon, who was not totally convinced by the oncologist, still thinks that there is a chance my mother has cancer. He managed to take a small biopsy of the bone tissue while he was attaching the plate and screws to hold her secure the fracture together. We will know the results in a couple of weeks. She's doing awesome. We played hangman and pictionary with her in her room last night. Nothing says Merry Christmas like a dry erase board and a smelly marker!

For those of you taking this week off - enjoy! For those of you working - remember, this is the best traffic week of the year. And you can probably goof off as much as possible this week because all the senior staff will be off while you are getting paid to surf the internet.

NOT CANCER!

Well, all the blood work is in and the oncologist has confirmed that my mother does not have cancer (unless you count her astrological sign)! If you feel heavy gusts of wind today, that is me exhaling. I am the most grateful person in the world. The satanic neurosurgeon was wrong.

She was visited today by a nurse practitioner who announced that they will be performing surgery on her to help heal the neck fracture. I guess the risks of having the surgery outweigh the risks of not having it. She might be in the hospital for Christmas, but hey, I'll take that over cancer any day! They needed to rule out cancer before they scheduled surgery.

So, I can once again go back to enjoying Christmas songs and wrapping gifts!

Time to Play Cancer or No Cancer!

I am emotionally drained and we don't even have a diagnosis yet. This morning, I spoke with my mother's neurosurgeon who basically said, "She has cancer, we just don't know what kind yet." I swear. No biopsies, no special blood work, nothing. The ground opened up beneath my feet. I was hysterical and had to leave work. All I wanted was to be with my mother. So we drove down to the hospital, my new home-away-from-home, and waited around for all this aggressive testing she was supposedly going to get. She got a new neck brace (her old one was horrible) and the results of her head and neck MRI (negative, thank God), but the hematologist didn't show and we didn't hear back from the neurosurgeon again. All I could think about was the fact that I buried my father 7 years ago and I couldn't bear to lose my mother, too. I am 36. Way too young to be totally parentless. Then I thought about Bill, my mother's new husband, whose first wife died of cancer. I proceeded to feel every human emotion possible today. But the fun was just starting when we left the hospital. After this exhausting day, my mom called me to say that she got a visit from her oncologist (cancer specialist) who thinks that she doesn't have cancer! I am now caught between believing the oncologist or not believing him for fear that it is cancer and my hopes will be dashed again. Life is going to suck until we know - definitively - whether or not she has cancer. And if she does, the suckage will continue.