My mom was diagnosed with stage IV nsclc in August 2008. She had a tumor in the right lung with another in the pons of her brain. They immediatley sent her to cleveland to do Gamma to the met in the brain, which reduced it in in size about 50%. She has been in and out of the hospital for various reasons over the course of the year including blood clot, pneumonia, etc. They also did whole brain radiation and she has been doing chemo.
After she was discharged from the blood clot issue she had trouble walking and was home alone (with visitng nurses) and in Feb 09 one of the nurses found her on the floor of her house. She was taken to the hosp and that is when they diagnosed pneumonia. After that she was transferred to a rehab facility to work on walking again. She dropped to 80 pounds, contracted c-diff, and I was sure in April we were going to lose her soon. Yet, she chose to fight and she regained strength and was able to walk out of that rehab center. She has since been staying with my brother.
In July she was going to restart chemo and they did a scan and the brain scan showed issues. She went back to Cleveland where they revealed 10 new tumors. they did gamma to 5 of them. A month later she had 2 new ones.
Fast forward to last week. On Monday she had a port put in. Tuesday she was supposed to restart chemo and while at home she fell and broke her hip. The fracture is very minor and not even an issue right now. When she got to hospital her O2 sat was low 60's. With a nose canula and a mask they could only get it in the high 80's. On Friday it finally came up into the high 90's. They did all kinds of tests and found an inflammation in the lung, and started her on solu medrol (stereoid), in addition to the morphine she was already on.Thursday night i stayed over with her at the hospital and right after I dozed off she pulled off her o2 mask. I heard her flailing in the bed and rann over to her and fought with her to get the mask back on. She didnt understand what was going on and thought she was on the ground and that people were telling her not to breathe. We got the mask back on and her o2 was 67. Friday and Saturday she was hallucinating, delusional and could remember the year. They said it was probably the solu medrol that caused this. then this morning her heart rate spiked to 190. they cleared the room and worked with her to stabilize her.
Now of course she has a cough and it hurts when she coughs. Today they were able to remove the canula and just use the mask and she says between 94-97. Tongiht we attempted to remove the mask and it dropped so that is not an option.
I am beginning to believe that she fell becuase of a low o2. the hip is not really even an issue at this point. She can move it and is not in a lot of pain.
This is so wearing on the heart and sould. To see someone suffer from this is just cruel to both the patient and the family. We are taking turns staying with her. I hate not knowing what comes next. Is this just another hurdle in her long fight or is this the beginning of the end? Either way I can handle it, as I hate seeing her have to endure this much pain.
Anyone have any similar stories. Its nice to have a place to reach out where someone may know what you are going through.