I am back from my latest visit with my mom.
She is doing well. It was my first visit with her since March when we first met with the oncologist. She has now had four rounds of chemo. Her most recent scan shows that her tumor is responding to chemo and has reduced in size <- awesome.
We met with the surgeon who said she is a favorable candidate for the Whipple procedure. He wants her to have two more rounds of chemo (which is what we were told in the beginning), take two weeks to rest and then come in for surgery. He'll take out her gallbladder, duodenum (part of her small intestine) and the head of her pancreas. He won't have to remove any of her stomach.
The toublesome part of her tumor is that it is pressing against a vein that goes to her liver. Her surgeon is head of the liver transplant team at Cedars Sinai, so this should be no problem for him (according to him and he is awesome). Whe he was talking to us, he used the awesome 'C' word - CURE.
She'll have to stay in the hospital for a week. She asked that I stay with her there. So for a week in July, y'all will be able to find my mom and me at our suite in the Beverly Hills CS day spa
We met with the oncologist. My mom's liver function level indicate her liver is getting aggitated, a natural consequence of chemo. If this persists, they'll reduce the chemo load by 20% on the next go around.
The day I left, my sister also told me she is pregnant (middle MinM sister). The placenta has perforated from the uterus and she is now has a high-risk pregnancy. At some point, she'll be put on permanent bed rest. I'm worried about her, but this also means she won't be able to help with my mom at all when she goes on bedrest. My other sister and I will have to ratchet up our efforts towards my mom's care, and now her's too.
I have to admit, I cried pretty much the entire way home. I even thew up on the plane. I've flown my entire life and never been air-sick. The best part is when the stewardess said, "Maybe you're pregnant!"
While I am happy for my sister, it was really hard to hear about her pregnancy. I am feeling better today, but I reserve the right to be upset about this again at a later date.
Oh, and she is is planning on marrying this baby-daddy. Please to be recalling this is her second kid, born under pretty much the same conditions. She started dating this guy in Decemeber. She is 13 weeks, so do the math - she got knocked up in March. Also, she has no insurance and neither does he. California, your tax dollars are paying for this kid!
She said they are probably going to get married. Before she "gets too fat." I said I'd be honored to stand for her at her wedding or let her borrow any of my wedding stuff, for her something 'borrowed' and that I'd love to just be there. She said, "Yes, but it may be last minute. We will see." She said it will probably just be them with my mom and a couple of friends at the beach.
I bet a frillion dollars she doesn't invite me. Oh well. It's her wedding, she is entilited to invite whomever she wants.
So that's that. You get a gold star if you made it this far.
I wanted to let you guys know, I'll be using my WW big money dollaz to pay for the plane tickets I have used to go see my mom. I thought you guys should know where your money went.