After talking to the social worker in the morning, we were able to work around getting my mom some much-needed 24 hour a day care. She was able to find a transitional care facility who could take care of all of mom's medical needs and also help mom get a bit stronger since her legs were filled with so much excess fluid. Since all of the residential nursing homes and hospices were denied by insurance, this was really our only route at this point in time. The social worker did also contact the only free residential hospice in the area and we were placed on a waiting list.
As all this was happening, mom received her ct scan results late Thursday night. I had originally requested him to do a ct scan the day prior just because I was curious to see the progression. I wanted to make sure we were making the right call on hospice. Deep down, I had this overwhelming feeling that her story was not done yet and I could tell that the only reason she was willing to give up the fight was because she thought that she was being a burden on me. She thought that by her being gone that I would not be so stressed, especially dealing with my pregnancy. I had a serious problem with that line of reasoning. I was not willing to let her throw in the towel for all the wrong reasons. I know she loved me and cared deeply for my well-being but this was her life...and you only get one shot at it. I gave the go ahead to do a ct scan.
Late Thursday evening, we got the results. To Dr. A's surprise, the cancer in the stomach and the metastasis in her lungs had not spread at all. There was no growth and was still considered stable which was quite amazing since she's been off treatment for two weeks and diffuse cancer is just rampant. Yes, there were complications (primarily blood clots) along the way with medications and the cancer itself but she fought through that too. Daily blood work showed that the blood clots were controlled and she was out of the woods at least on that.
This got mom along with the four of us thinking! We did not want to pressure her by any means to continue treatment but at the same time, we offered all of our opinions. On Friday afternoon, mom, Dr. A and myself met with Dr. A. We asked him his take on all this. He said that mom was doing remarkably well and he thinks that she still has fight in her yet. I asked if could give the second cmet drug a shot and he thought it was a good idea. He said at this point, it is an unknown and if mom wanted to try - it was worth a shot. And he would get the ball rolling on getting it dispensed but it would take a few days to a week. But in the meantime, he suggested for her to do some transitional care at a rehab facility. He wanted to make her stronger and was hopeful that the rehab facility could help her. He was going to leave detailed instructions on her care for them to follow and said to keep him updated once mom is discharged later that evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment