Retroexposure

D-Day

Tuesday 25th November 2008

Mum's bricking it. I'm sure she is. She's got her test results this morning. The appointment is for 10:55am. Our friends, Anne and Peter will take us over to the hospital for the appointment.
God knows what the results will say. Mum has her thoughts and if her predictions of diagnoses on medical dramas are anything to go by, she's hardly ever wrong. That's the thing about being nurse, former or current, you know exactly what you're dealing with before you are told.
"Well, Mrs Donnelly, we have some tough talking to do." Said the consultant, Mr Scott. "You have some deposits of cells mainly in the bowel area, but also on the liver, the lymph nodes and possibly the pancreas too."
I was sitting behind Mum as Mr Scott told her the news.
"Surgery's not an option, is it?" Mum asked, though it was more like a statement.
"No, its not. Not for now. Chemotherapy is the next obvious step, but you can have one of two types. You can have a lighter course of treatment, which will keep the deposits under control, or the heavy course which will be much more vigorous."
"The heavy course, no question" Mum said, without hesitation.
"I've spoken to the Oncologist, Dr Thomas, last week, and when you go to that appointment, you'll be given more information as to what the treatments contain and you'll be given 48 hours to discuss with your son about what you want to do next." Mr Scott explained.
'I don't need 48 hours' Mum thought. "I won't need that, I just want to get this treatment started." She told the consultant.
Mr Scott also told Mum that the reason the results took so long was because her biopsy cells had really confused the scientists! Apparently there are types of chemicals that help identify whereabouts in the body the cells came from. Problem was, they came from everywhere, it seemed. So they don't actually know where the primary site of the cancer is.
Mum then asked Mr Scott for a prescription of a medication that would be able to calm the nausea that she's been experiencing for the last few weeks. He wrote one out and handed it to Mum and then she handed it to me so that I could go to the pharmacy for her. As we left Mr Scott's office, a nurse offered Mum and Anne, who had been waiting in the clinic with us, a coffee. I jokingly asked if there was any whisky available, and then headed to the pharmacy. While waiting for the prescription, I started texting all my friends and leaving a status note on Facebook. Within minutes I had several of my 'harem', as Mum calls them, leave messages of shock and support. After collecting the medication, we went home and Mum spent the afternoon calling people and letting them know the latest, while I had my friends keep in touch with me too. As it stands at the moment, Mum doesn't have a proper prognosis yet until the first appointment with Dr. Thomas. Then we'll find out when the Chemotherapy treatment starts. Mum is hoping that the course will take a long time. If it doesn't, be worried.
Mr. Scott had told Mum that the type of Chemotherapy that Mum would have, doesn't mean that she would lose her hair, though what chemo treatment have you heard of that doesn't include hair loss in the side effects? Wigs are too expensive so Mum says that she'll go for the bald look! Hmmm, 'Stone Cold' SUE Austin! One of Mum's best friends recently discovered that she's battling cancer too, so they'll battle this together. Cancer brought them together 30 years ago, when Mum's friend's first husband was dying from it. And now it's affecting them both, in different ways.

From here on, I'll include notes from the District nurse or her carers.