Update on Mom - Friday evening, December 5th I had to call an ambulance to take mom to the ER in Farrell. She had been experiencing new symptoms throughout the day that progressively got worse. She was loosing the ability to hold anything with her right hand. Dropping even a plastic cup. She was having more difficulty breathing and was extremely pale (white lips, skin, etc.) In her bedroom, she could not even stand for 2 seconds without her legs giving out. I took her temperature and it was 99 degrees (which could be a sign of infection for a patient on chemo) so I made the decision to get her to the hospital. After a number of tests, blood work, cultures, EKG, CT Scans the ER Doctor initially thought it was heart related because of a difference in her EKG and T number from her report done in September. We transferred her to Sharon Regional which has a heart center and they ran their own set of tests and ruled out heart issues. Ultimately we had the opportunity to speak with the on-call oncologist, Dr. George Garrow - extremely caring and compassionate physician. We were all so very impressed with how genuine and open he was with mom and our family. Dr. Garrow explained to us that it doesnt appear that the chemo has made any positive impact on moms cancer. Her chest cavity and lungs are full of cancer. Her cancer is a very aggressive, triple negative metastatic breast cancer which is typically very resistant to chemotherapy. Because of how frail she has become, trying another type of chemo could actually accelerate her death. His recommendation was to stop treatment and begin palliative care, keeping her comfortable and pain free. He asked mom if she wanted to discontinue all the CT scans, blood work, tests, and chemo and she said yes. This afternoon, Saturday we transitioned her to inpatient hospice at Sharon Regional Hospital. When I asked Dr. Garrow about his thoughts on when my sister Shirleen should come up from SC he said soon…moms body is very frail and weary from her fight. The cancer has taken a toll on her body. She has been very strong and courageous throughout this journey, never giving up, keeping her independence and her strong will. She is tired, she has fought this battle with strong reserve. Now it is in Gods hands, and as mom has said from her first diagnosis If God is ready for me, Hell take me…if Hes not Ill be around Continue to pray for peace, comfort and strength for my family as we continue on her final leg of this journey, as we release her into the loving arms of her maker, and savior Jesus Christ...
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 03:16:32 +0000