Introduction

Welcome to my blog about my mom, Loretta, and our journey through learning of her cancer and treatment.

Just a little background. Mom is 61 and hadn't been to a doctor in about 18 years until this past June 2011. The reason for this is due to the surmountable cost of insurance, even when your spouse has insurance it can be cost prohibitive.
So, Mom finally got approved by JPS in June and it was a good thing too, she had Basil cell carcinoma on the bridge of her nose. She underwent surgery to remove the tumor and plastic surgery reconstruction. She also has high blood pressure and Thyroid problems. We thought she was finally getting the attention she was missing and was going to be OK. Boy were we mistaken.
Mom started having some abdominal pain the first of January 2012. After talking with her and the pain getting worse, she finally agreed that she needed to go to the clinic or ER.
The following blog posts chronicle the events since then. Future posts will continue to explain treatment, issues concerning her condition and general comments.
I appreciate you taking the time to learn about what it means to be diagnosed and this type of cancer. Mom has been a trooper so far, she says "I'll beat this".

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Jan 30th - Feb 7th - Pain & Drain's


1/30/12 - Sunday
Michael (my brother) and family visited around 3pm as Kathy & I were leaving. Mom was waiting to hear if they were going to do her surgery the next day.

1/31/12 - Monday
9am - I was there when mom went into surgery to have a drain put in the bile duct on the left side of her liver. Dr said they will install the stent in a few days after the drain has removed as much bile as possible.
Mom came back to her room in a lot of pain around the drain exit site on her right side. 
8pm - oncologist stopped by, Dr Norikanda, to check on mom. She explained that they have now classified mom's cancer as Cholangiocarcinoma. At this time it does not appear to have metastasized.

2/3/12 - Friday
1pm - they installed her portacath and on her right side. She has fever again since coming back from surgery.Doc wants her on 10 consecutive days of antibiotics starting from 1/30/12 before they will consider her going home.

2/7/12 - Tuesday
My morning started at 6:30 when I had to get ready for my day surgery on my sinus'. Surgery was at 8:30am and Joanna had me back at home around 11am. I called mom on the way home and she said they have her schedule for surgery around noon. I rested until mom called and said she was on her way downstairs to surgery. Joanna and I got back in the car and made it to the hospital before mom went into surgery at 1pm.
They removed the drain tube and inserted a stent in her left bile duct. The Dr said he had a time getting it in there because of the tumor. They used the portacath for both blood and IV with success.  Joanna and I waited in mom's room for her to get out of surgery. She was in some pretty bad pain.  Jo was a trooper running me around and hanging with me at the hospital with mom. Thanks Jo!

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