Day 2

I arrived at the hospital bright and early today after having only a few hours of sleep the night before.  I needed to be with mom today as she goes through all this. Her condition is still not as stable as I'd like but she does seem more comfortable today compared to yesterday. She's still unable to breathe on her own but at least her pain level in her chest has lessened.

I spoke with the attending physician this morning and he thinks there's some other factor that is affecting the rapid fluid build-up. He ordered a few more tests to be done. Earlier this afternoon, mom had a thoracentesis for her right side of her lung and they withdrew 600 cc's of fluid. It's crazy how much fluid had piled up because she had that side drained just over two weeks ago (400 cc's).  She was given a drug called lasix which is used to treat fluid retention.  Hopefully together they can get the fluid under control.

She also had an echocardiogram to make sure her heart was working the way it should be. She had one back in June prior to starting the EOX chemo regime so they are going to compare the two to see if anything is out of the ordinary. She was given another med to keep her blood pressure and heart working property as a precaution.

3:15 PM - Dr. A stepped in for a few minutes to visit mom. He received the ct scan results from yesterday and it shows that there are some additional cancer spots spreading to her lungs. We talked and the plan of attack is to go ahead and start the crizotinib/xalkori tomorrow. I am so relieved that we got his approved ahead of time because ironically it's a lung cancer drug. We also chatted a bit about options and worse case scenarios but I am choosing not to discuss that right now because it's a private family matter. Mom, Mandy & I need to make those decisions.

I got a bit teary-eyed when Dr. A left. He held my mom's hand and asked her all about Guyana. He said one day he promises he'd visit Guyana for her.  He also told mom that she's very lucky to have me as her daughter because I've done a tremendous job at dealing with all this. He said I've inspired him and his team and they learned a lot from me and we wouldn't be where we were if it weren't for me.

7:00 PM - Dr. A and I went over all of mom's current medications and possible interactions with crizotinib. So, we're changing and tweaking things to make the transition as easy as it can be.

As shitty as the situation seems to be, I still have hope.  Mom has been given a unique opportunity here with these c-met inhibitors. I forgot to mention in the blog with everything going on, but she also got approved for the 2nd c-met FDA approved inhibitor out there, Cabozantinib. And we didn't have to file an appeal on this one - yay!

I strongly believe that mom has fight in her yet. It's been a rough and bumpy road but she's digging deep and we're fighting.