Catching everyone up

I decided to start a blog to help keep family and friends informed on my Mom's health and journey with cancer. I choose the title I can't believe.....because I found myself saying that so much over the last several weeks. I remember the first time I said it, I was in the bathroom getting ready to go the hospital I looked in the mirror and said to myself I can't believe my Mom has a brain tumor. That was followed by a serious breakdown into a folded towel so I wouldn't wake my family. After that moment there have been so many I can't believe moments. Like, I can't believe my Mom is having brain surgery, I can't believe my Mom has cancer, I can't believe I just bought scarves for my Mom to cover her head. There have been so many I can't believe moments and I am sure there will be many more.

I will use this first blog as a catch-up blog so everyone can have the same information.

This all started April 29th. Dad called me and asked me to come down because Mom was acting funny. After giving Dad the what-for because he was bothering me while I was making dinner I decided he was being serious and I should go down there. When I got there I started talking to Mom and she seemed just fine. I began asking her questions and she could not give me the right answers. I asked her if she knew where she was and she said no. I asked her if she knew who I was and she looked me in the eyes and said no. I told Dad I was taking her to the hospital. I called my sister Jeni from the car and told her to meet us there. Dad and Jeni arrived seconds after we did. They took her back right away and began treating her for a stroke. They did CT scans and an MRI. The gave her the tpa drug because they were treating her within the first 3 hours of her symptoms. By this time she was no longer speaking. Not long after she received the tpa her room cleared out and we were told to wait with her until the drug started taking effect, anywhere from 1-3 hours. About 10 minutes later she began to have a seizure. Jeni ran to get a Dr and we tried to hold her down. They rushed us out of the room and the next time we saw her she intibated and unconscious. We called the boys and told them to get to the hospital asap. They moved Mom to the CCU where she stayed sedated for 2 days. The nurse she had continued letting her sedation medicine run out and I would have to go get her and tell her it was empty. I had it timed out that she had 5 minuets to give her another dose before she began to wake up. When she would begin to wake up her blood pressure would go up and she would pull on her restraints and gag on the tube. Needless to say this nurse Allison and I were not friends. During shift change Allison let Moms meds run out and when I went to find her the nurse at the desk Jackie told me she would be ok until Allison got back. By this time she was throwing up blood and was pulling her tube out. I went out of the room and yelled to the nurses to get down there right now. About 5 of them came running. They made us leave the room and Renee ( our sister in law ) went to get Jeni. Mom's new nurse Michelle came out and got us to see Mom. I asked Michelle if Mom knew who I was ans she said "I don't know come and find out :) " I went to Mom and said Hi and she said hi bitch and everything she said for and hour after that was curse words. It was so funny. I was deliriously happy because she was awake but listening to her swear was funnier than I can describe. Over the next few days she saw several Doctors and had several more tests. Her speech was impaired and her short term memory was bad. She was released from the hospital 7 days after she was admitted. She was sent home with the diagnosis of an ichemic stroke. 25 days later we brought her back to the hospital because she was having the same symptoms as last time. She was admitted and it seemed like they ran every test in the hospital on her. The CT scan showed no new blood clot. The MRI showed the old stroke site. The EEG was negative. They could not find anything wrong with her but clearly there was something wrong. On her 4th day in the hospital we were sure they were going to send her home. Her neurologist come in and said he wanted to do a different MRI one that went through the blood so they could see if they could figure out why she was having headaches. They took her right away and within 2 hours the neurologist was back with MRI scans. As soon as he set them down on the bed I knew it wasn't good. He compared the MRI from the month prior to the one he just ordered and there was clearly a tumor in her brain. I asked him what it was and he said he couldn't answer it and he would set us up with a neuro surgeon asap and he may be able to answer that question. The next morning we met with Dr Chuck the neuro surgeon and he scheduled surgery for the following day. I can't believe my Mom is having brain surgery! June 7th she had surgery, a Craniotomy and excision of tumor. The surgery was scheduled to take 4-5 hours. About 1 hour into the surgery Dr Chuck came out and said they decided to do a biopsy instead because when they opened her up they did not see what they expected to see and the pathologist working at the hospital could not be 100% certain what the tumor was. So they sent it out to several pathologists to get second opinions. June 9th Mom was released from the hospital to go home and wait for her results. I can't believe I am cleaning blood off my Mom's staples in her head. June 17th we had a follow up with Mom's family Dr. Potts. He received the results from the Mayo clinic and told us that Mom has brain cancer. June 22nd we went to see Dr. Chuck and scheduled another Craniotomy and excision of tumor for June 30th. June 28th we met with Dr. Abramson the oncologist He spent so much time with us and was very compassionate and reinforced to her that she was in charge of her cancer and he will do what she wants. He went over the Chemo with us and what would happen after the surgery. We all left his office feeling really good. June 29th Mom had another MRI to have a updated scan for surgery. Dr. Chuck called us later that night and told us the tumor has grown significantly and if Mom was still considering not doing chemo then he was not going to do surgery. By this time Mom had already decided to do both chemo and radiation. June 30th Mom had her 2nd surgery. Dr. Chuck removed as much of the tumor as he safely could and inserted 8 chemo wafers into the brain where he could not remove the tumor. She went to the NICU for the night and back up to the 6th floor to be released July 1st. July 2nd the chemo started kicking in and Mom got very ill for 2 days she couldn't eat and she slept most of the time. July 6th she began feeling much better. When I stopped by before work I was pleasantly surprised to see her up and dressed. She said she had already been working in her flowers and she felt really good. This brings us up to date through yesterday. Today we had an appointment with the Neurologist and tomorrow we see the Radiologist. I will blog an update on both appointments and how Mom is feeling tomorrow.