Against her will...

As many of you may already know, my Mom is very much a hippie at heart especially when it comes to modern medicine, 6 kids at home with a midwife, no doctors, no hospitals, and no drugs, need I say more. The only things that have proved to be more challenging than dragging her to doctor appointments and the seemingly endless tests at hospitals all over town, has been convincing her to let my sister and I HELP her with the little things and share with all her friends and our enormous family the details of her diagnosis and her treatment.

Due to the size of our family and the tremendous amount of friends who are concerned about her wellbeing, we set up this blog to keep everyone informed and allow people to post comments here (which I will print and read to Mom so she knows what a huge support group she has behind her).

For those who may have missed some of the happenings over the past 2 weeks, here is a quick recap of events:

Friday, September 5th: Mom had a colonoscopy in Houston at Kelsey Sebold Clinic (after much arm twisting and many threats from her wonderful beau Gordon) where they identified a rather large tumor located just past the turn at the top of the rectum where the colon starts. The young doctor who performed the colonoscopy was unable to complete the test as she was afraid to attempt passing the tumor for fear she could puncture the colon wall. SIDE NOTE: If it wasn’t for Gordon we would absolutely not be as far through the process as we are today and from all of Mom’s kids we cannot possibly thank him enough!

Tuesday, September 9th: Gordon again stepped up and drug Mom kicking and screaming to see the Kelsey Sebold Colon Surgeon. Although at this point all we knew was they were recommending surgery to remove the tumor, yet we didn’t have the biopsy results or really any other information yet.

Wednesday, September 10th: The biopsy results were returned positive for rectal cancer. We filed transfer paperwork with MD Anderson (7-10 business day file review process) and scheduled further tests with Kelsey Sebold.

Thursday, September 11th: Mom came to Dallas, not to avoid the hurricane but to allow me to try and speed up the cancer staging testing, as Kelsey Sebold was not providing comprehensive information and we (her kids) did not at all have a comfort level with their abilities to complete the surgery or even the staging tests needed. Plus, due to the hurricane quickly approaching the Texas coastline everything in Houston was coming to a screeching halt.

Friday, September 12th: Hurricane Ike. I took Mom to Presbyterian Hospital of Plano ER to have some tests run (x-ray to check on the blockage in her colon and blood work to make sure all her other organs were working properly) – Doctor Z said that she was the healthiest sick lady he had seen all day, but just in case the hurricane put Houston out of commission for longer than the weekend, he gave us 2 referrals to Colon Surgeons in Dallas.

Tuesday, September 16th: We met with Doctor Julie Leverton (http://www.texascolon.com/leverton.html), she is a Colon and Rectal Surgeon in Plano near where Elizabeth and I live. During our first one hour office visit with Dr. Leverton we learned more about the process and procedures for staging and surgery than Mom had in multiple visits and conversations with Kelsey Sebold in Houston.

Wednesday, September 17th: CT Scan with barium at Centennial Hospital in Frisco (where we live). This test is part of the staging tests to identify if there are tumors or cancer cells present in other organs (Colon and Rectal Cancers typically spread first to liver, lungs, or ovaries). The CT Scan came back “clean” with the exception of 2 small “spots” of concern on the left lung which will need to be monitored and further tested after her surgery, however, at this point Dr. Leverton said these do not appear to be the cancer spreading.

Thursday, September 18th: Second colonoscopy at Plano Baylor to make sure there are no further tumors in the remainder of the colon. Dr. Leverton identified the cancer as a late stage 2 or early stage 3 and that the tumor has created a 98% blockage of the colon. The need for surgery is urgent (meaning we could not wait any longer than 3 weeks) and although chemotherapy will be required, Mom will not have to additionally go through radiation and due to the location of the tumor there will be no colostomy (which is great news).

MD Anderson was unable to even schedule the surgery for 4-5 weeks due to the backlog caused by the Hurricane Ike aftermath, however, we were able to change her Surgery Referral (filed the week before) to a Chemotherapy Referral. The plan will be surgery in Dallas and Chemo in Houston at MD Anderson after recovery (4-6 weeks).

Stage II
In stage II, cancer has spread outside the rectum to nearby tissue, but it has not gone into the lymph nodes.

Stage III
In stage III, cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes, but it has not spread to other parts of the body.

Friday, September 19th: Elizabeth and I drove Mom to Houston to pack her clothes, books, and computer files for her move to Dallas for the next several weeks, as well as, tie up some loose ends at her office. We also had a family meeting Saturday with the Brothers and our wonderful sister-in-laws to discuss the logistics of visitation schedules while Mom is here in Dallas and how we will all work together to get Mom back and forth to MD Anderson for chemo treatments once she returns to Houston.

Monday, September 22nd: We took Mom to get her hair done today and it looks really GREAT (which she was super excited about, she will be the best looking lady on the surgery recovery floor for sure)! After a couple days of only ensure and pulp-free juices, she was stocked when I brought home cherry jello and 15 different types of tea from the grocery store. It’s the little things in life.

The resection surgery is scheduled this Friday, September 26th at Plano Presbyterian Hospital (972) 981-8000 at noon. I will make sure updates are provided here as more information becomes available. Elizabeth, Gordon, David and I will be with her during the surgery and Nick, Chris, Sue and Gosia will all be here Friday night.

Much love to every single one of you who have already sent us your positive energy, prayers, warm wishes and continue to show support through all of this. Please feel free to share this with others who might also be interested in staying in the loop.

Monica~

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