Update on MOM

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support and everything you have and/or willing to do. I want everyone to know that dad and I have done a lot of research on this cancer. So I would like for everyone to understand that aside from Devine intervention Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer is NOT curable. Metastatic pancreatic cancer treatments are palliative in nature. Palliative means Relieving or soothing the symptoms of a disease or disorder without affecting a cure. If there was a cure we would be pursuing that option, because we are not ready to let mom go! In today’s information age results and discoveries are communicated around the world. So unless you are being treated in the hills by a back woods Doctor you can find help and treatment locally.

We are very confident in the Dr’s who have been treating mom. They have been wonderful and have taken such good care of her. I thank ALL of them.

Since we now know surgery is not an option, our next step is working with an Oncologist. We are working with Dr Rhoades and Segal and they are with the Zangmeister Center. Here is their link so feel free to take a look:

http://www.zangcenter.com

The first thing we need to do is get mom strong enough to have a permanent stint put in to help drain the bile which helps with the Jaundice. She has a temporary one in now and the permanent one is stronger and does not have problems with clogging. In order for her to get this done she needs to be able to lay on her side, so we are hoping to have this done maybe by Monday. We would like for her to get this done now while she is in the hospital and then maybe we will be looking for a release on Tuesday.

Now I hope no one takes this the wrong way or gets offended when I say this but I am asking everyone to give mom some time to recoup and get strong. And we as a family need to take a breath and absorb all of this. I hope you understand what I am asking of all of you. We have to keep in mind that she has just had her gut cut open, is going to have a metal object inserted into her bile duct and she has to have time to process our next step. She is getting stronger but still in pain and not very lucid. They have her on a lot of pain medications and conversations are not remembered, she is confused and at times very comical.

Here is a funny one – yesterday she had her tray with breakfast in front of her and she was kind of picking at it and then she asked “now don’t I have a feeding tube”? Dad and I just looked at each other and smiled. Dad and I have also learned to just let her think and say whatever we don’t correct her because she is just too confused with all the drugs. Once we get her home and “sober” it will all click in I am sure.

Yesterday, the oncologist came in to suggest treatment for her. His exact words were that the goal of the treatment, which is Chemo, is not to cure but to help elevate pain and possible retard the growth of the cancer. He also said we are talking months not years. The goal of treatment in patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma is to provide relief of their symptoms to improve the quality of their lives. In some patients treatment with chemotherapy drug called gemcitidine may lead to improvement in the symptoms and improvement in the performance status (increase in energy and ability to function).
The cycle of treatment would be 1 time per week for 3 weeks then off 1 week. The total time spent for treatment would only be about an hour and half. The first part of treatment would be to give her medications to help with possible side effects i.e. like nausea then they would administer the Chemo drug which would only take about 30 minute. He was pretty frank with us and said if this cancer was curable he would push treatment but it is not. He is suggesting this as she qualifies as a patient who would be strong enough to tolerate the treatment. He also said they will be doing scans and keeping track of her blood counts and if the treatment is not doing anything and/or she is not tolerating it well then we can just stop.

We have an appointment to see Dr Rhoades in 2 weeks, so between now and then once she gets sober enough we as a family will talk about it and SHE can make the decision to do what SHE wants to do.

For now I need to get off here and go to the hospital, she wants me to wash her hair and I know she can not wait to take a shower, hopefully that will happen soon. I hope I have answered your questions and explained things well. If you do have any questions or whatever just give dad or I a call. We love and appreciate you ALL !