F*** You, Cancer! Catch all

So my mom had the PET scan. The nodule showed up as a bright spot on her lung, meaning it's growing, and the thoracic surgeon recommended surgery to remove it. She goes under the knife in two weeks. They're going to segment out the tumor rather than remove the entire lobe of her lung because doing that would mean she would have to be on supplemental O2 for the rest of her life.

This will be the 3rd surgery my soon-to-be 82-year-old mom has had to have in the past year to treat various cancers. Luckily all of them have been caught relatively early and haven't spread anywhere. The tumor in her lung is just over the size that triggers concern.

But the past year had been very hard on my mom and now we have another surgery and weeks, if not months, of recovery. Hell, I'm still shuttling her to follow-up appointments and therapy from her December surgery to remove a tumor from her ear. There hasn't been a week where she hasn't had at least one doctor's appointment and most weeks there's been several. Now she's going to have months more of that.

It's taking a toll on me and I'm not even the one who's had to go through all the hard stuff.

After chemo last summer, my dad’s cancer came back (never left??) and he now just finished a second round of chemo/radiation therapy (25 days, every weekday) to try to shrink it so they can operate.

mudbunny wrote:

After chemo last summer, my dad’s cancer came back (never left??) and he now just finished a second round of chemo/radiation therapy (25 days, every weekday) to try to shrink it so they can operate.

f*ck
f*ck
f*ck
f*ck

Had a chance to sit down and talk to my dad.

The MRI before the radiation/chemotherapy regime (5 weeks, 5 times a week) showed the cancer had spread. As of that date(mid January) the spread was to the point of 50% survival beyond 1 year.

He’ll have another MRI at the end of March after the inflammation from the radiation/chemotherapy has gone down. Then mid-April they will open up his leg (??) near the ileal vein to see if surgery is possible.

Edit to add - my dad just called to tell me the surgery is “very risky” they won’t know until
They open him up if they will even be able to do the surgery at all.

Hoping for the best Mudbunny.

f*ck. I'm sorry mudbunny.

I'm sorry mudbunny. Hoping for good news for you guys in the coming weeks.

Tomorrow is take my mom to get COVID tested day so she's ready for her thoracoscopic lobectomy on Tuesday. This sh*t sucks.

I just opened up the thread and saw Mudbunny's post. I haven't read any of the previous posts, but along with my sympathies I'd suggest having a discussion about paperwork. It's good to discuss things now before it becomes too stressful.

Thanks to all that offered sympathies. It truly helps.

1Dgaf wrote:

I just opened up the thread and saw Mudbunny's post. I haven't read any of the previous posts, but along with my sympathies I'd suggest having a discussion about paperwork. It's good to discuss things now before it becomes too stressful.

We are in the process of discussing it. I know where his and his partner's wills are. I know where he is getting buried and what he wants done. (His options are limited, as he is getting buried in a military cemetary). We are going to be discussing over the upcoming weeks/months who he wants me to contact, what social media groups he wants me to post on, etc.

Today's a tiny victory day.

My mother was finally released from the hospital from the partial lobectomy she had on Tuesday. She was only supposed to spend a night there, but when her thoracic doc opened her up she found that the tumor was on the very edge of the first lobe and was touching the second lobe. That meant she had to remove more of the lung than she originally thought which cascaded to my mother having to be put on O2 because her levels (which weren't the best to begin with) kept dropping, especially at night. Last night she didn't need oxygen so she was released this morning.

Now we just need to get her healed up because she's scheduled to go back under the knife in May to finish up the procedure she had at Christmas for ear cancer (they're putting in a cochlear implant to replace everything they had to remove). God, she's been such a f*cking little trooper this past year.

Today was my mom's two week post surgery doctor's appointment. She got some stitches out and some new pain meds and we went over the pathology report.

There was no cancer in the surrounding lung tissue they excised and no sign of cancer cells in the lymph nodes they tested. Now it's just CTs every six months for a couple of years to make sure everything stays OK.

It was a very good day today!

Great news!!!

Wow, that's the best news this thread has had in a while!

My dad goes in for his 2nd cancer surgery today. The surgeons won't know until they open him up if they will even be able to remove the tumor or not.

Sending all the positive vibes, mudbunny.

Hoping for the best.

Just heard from my dad. He got out of surgery a while ago, and he feels OK. He will see the surgeon tomorrow morning.

Thanks for the well-wishes all!!

Surgery more complicated then they thought.
Probably did not get all of it.
Can no longer do radiation or chemotherapy.
Meeting oncologist/surgeon on the 6th of may.

f*ck!!

So sorry to hear that, Mudbunny.

My dad's margins are 100% clean.

They got it all.

Can't get much better news than that!

That's fantastic news mudbunny!

Wow, what an enormous relief, especially after all the bad news earlier. Are they still not able to do more chemo or radiation therapy?

Malor wrote:

Wow, what an enormous relief, especially after all the bad news earlier. Are they still not able to do more chemo or radiation therapy?

They might be able to for a future type, but not for this case. He had already had it, and it would have been the cure is worse than the disease levels of hard on the body.

Congratulations mudbunny!
I'm really happy for you guys!

At some point I will take the time to describe in more detail the incredible journey we've been on throughout this bone marrow transplant process, but right now I'll just share that after nearly 60 days from prep through process, our family is whole once again - today my son came home.

Results from some very important, very critical procedures/tests done yesterday are pending, but by initial accounts, his current immune cells are 100% his donor's, they are coming in strong, and little signs of issues/rejection/etc. so far. We will soon learn if they are the golden ticket to ending his cancer, but for now we are grateful to be a family, at home together tonight - something I honestly thought might never happen again has come to pass, and I'm so incredibly happy and appreciative that I'm not sure what do to with myself.

Life is such a gift.

Yay! Nice to have good news in this thread

That is such hopeful news. Thank you for sharing it and enjoy being together.

f*ck.

Just as my dad finds out the margins of his surgery are clean, my wife's mother gets taken to the hospital, and we are told "bring [her son] by. It's not likely she will ever be going home again" and "without a biopsy, we can't say anything, but the MRI of her liver shows it is incredibly enlarged and she has spots in her lung and liver as well."

f*ck.