It's been almost 6 months since I last update my blog, all was going well for 5 of those 6 months so I guess I didn't have much to blog about but the past 5-6 weeks rattled our lives again. What frustrates me most is my mom's doctor at Duke who did not listen to her and our concerns for 4 weeks about a new pain in her right side...as a cancer patient it would only make sense to me that I look into the new pain and not brush it off or "assume" nothing is really wrong. Well, when her doctor finally did a CT Scan because my mom was already scheduled for one it illustrated exactly why she was having this new pain: tumor rapidly grew larger and spread to new areas. A simple scan could have shown us this weeks ago and it would have never gotten to the point it did with my mom that lead her to gaining 15 lbs of fluid in a week and having to get about 4 liters of fluid pumped out of her stomach but that wasn't the worst part about it....the worst part was letting my mom suffer through excruciating pain just because her doctor didn't take any action!!!! I thought doctors were there to listen to their patients and help in any way they can, not prolong pain until they feel like it's finally time to check. I can't believe it happened that way but it did....so we searched for second opinions elsewhere and decided to get a new chemo treatment in GA since her Duke doctor also gave us a defeated demeanor and didn't have many alternative options for my mom, almost as if she was uninterested in exploring other alternatives.
So as a result of a series of bad events with her Duke doctor we are now being seen in GA every 3 weeks for chemo that consists of Carboplatin and Avastin, she was on Ifosfimide/Mesna/Taxol but I guess that stopped working for her. Her doctor in GA was a lot more concerned and they took quick action and made sure to take a double look at everything so that they weren't missing anything, he also gave us a variety of potential alternatives for tackling this cancer....I think he is willing to try any and everything to help my mom even knowing that this rare cancer (only happens in about a dozen female per year) does not have many drugs available with a proven track record. I much rather have a doctor who is going to try his best than not try anything at all.
When we found out how bad things had gotten I felt the same way I did when we first found out she had cancer but I have been able to bounce back now knowing we have a better doctor and she will be treated at a better facility. This helps put me a little at ease even though she continues to have stomach pain a lot. On her next visit she will have chemo as well as a camera traveling down to her stomach and surrounding areas to make sure there are no other issues going on. I hope nothing else is wrong and that she can start feeling better soon.
I could go on and on about the frustration but that won't do anything except make me madder so I'm just looking forward to the holidays and I pray this new chemo treatment works for my mom!!
