Mom Update: August 26

Well, Monday is Mom's 92nd birthday. We have asked her how she would like to celebrate and she always comes up with a non answer response. (I'll see if I can get jamelah to sneak a picture of her and will post here after her birthday.) Solid food makes her sick, so she isn't looking forward to a birthday dinner. She eats soup. So I'm going to make her a pot of soup and some cornbread and let her eat until she feels she will explode. That won't be much. She has little appetite has lost 5 pounds. The doctors are telling her she has to gain it back. She is to begin drinking Ensure for breakfast. She has enjoyed her tomaotes, however. And they are awesome this year. She only planted 5 plants and they are producing enough to open a hi-way stand.

Now, for the doctor news. She had her staples removed from the incision from where she had her pacemacker put in and an appointment with the radiologist (Dr. Mudge) on Friday. So, she was on the go all day. Everything was well when they checked her at the heart doctor's. She does not go back there until a regular check up on her pacemaker, but she does have an upcoming appointment in September with the doctor. The Radiologist spent a great deal of time with her on Friday. He wanted to make sure she understood all that could be happening to her. He is the doctor that James (Phyllis's husband had when he was diagonosed with throat cancer).

Simply put, the CT scan which was run on Tuesday shows that the cancer is not spreading. They are confident now that a radical mastectomy will not be necessary. They reccommend that Mom have the partial done (this will remove the bloodclot from the biopsy, any affected tissue and check the lymph nodes and remove as needed. This would be followed up with 33 radiation treatments (5 times a week... not on weekends nor on holidays). This would get any cancer tissue that might have been missed in the surgery because it was not visible or that had started to grow since. The doctor's are concerned that since Mom has problems bleeding that a radical mastectomy would be too traumatic for her. However, the decision will be hers to make. Also, should she opt for the complete mastectomy, healing would take a very long time and any additional treatments that would be necessary would have to be chemo. This is due to the length of healing and for other reasons... which I didn't get exactly straight or understand completely.

Anyway, she seems to be accepting the idea of a partial operation now instead of pushing for the radical mastectomy. This is due to the positive report she received from the CT scan which showed that the tumors were not spreading.

Her next major appointment will be on Tuesday and I will update you as soon as I can after we get the report from Dr. Shen. He will be determining when Mom may be ready for surgery. Her platelet count was 105 the last time checked. It will be checked again next week.

But, she has a free day on Monday. That is her brithday, so if you have her phone number, give her a call and wish her Happy Birthday. She has taken all the cards (thank you so much)and layed them out like a quilt on her dining room table. They are beautiful and she is really enjoying hearing from everyone. Email me if you want to contact her and have lost her contact information at afearle@yahoo.com.

Bless you... and keep praying. God is on our side and listening. I am sure of that.

Pray for Phyllis and James too. They have been doing the carrying back and forth of Mom for her appointments and sometimes that's a really hectic schedule.