In December 2005 in the midst of my 18 month tour in Iraq, I had this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was wrong at home. You see, my mother and I share this special connection like no other. We have a bond so close it is indescribable. I called home and found out that she had recently been diagnosed with stomach cancer. She is 51 years old, married with three children, ages 27, 26, and myself 23. I felt like my world had ended. Within 48 hours I was on a plane back home to Hawaii. My mom had all the routine test done, CAT scan (Negative), Blood work / Cancer Markers (all within range…normal), EGD (Showed Volcano like tumors, positive) and a PET scan which showed the cancer activity in her stomach. The Doctors where quite optimistic thinking they would be able to do surgery and have either a partial stomach removal or full stomach removal. They went in, and found that the cancer had spread to the outside of her stomach and to the lower portion of her esophagus. The cancer was in the fatty tissues that surrounded her stomach and her lymph nodes. They then closed her up and marked her as inoperable. My mom spent a few days in the hospital recovering from her surgery and met with her oncologist during her stay. He looked me straight in the eye and said your mom is stage 4 Cancer and has about a year to live…a part of me died that day.
The surgeon has chose to leave her stomach in, with the cancer believing that having her stomach removed would have been too harsh on her body and she would not be able to endure chemotherapy and radiation. After healing from the surgery my mom started to undergo Chemotherapy. Her Chemo consisted of: Xeloda 3 times a day, every day, Oxoplatin & Epirubisin every three weeks for 9 weeks. After she completed this round of chemo she redid her cancer screenings. CAT scan and blood work were negative, and although the tumor had shrank and seemed to visually look good in her EGD the biopsy and PET were still positive for cancer. The cancer had stayed contained in her stomach and had not spread to any of her other organs. Our family was devastated we had wanted so bad to have heard “THE CANCER IS GONE!!!” Her oncologist then started her on 25 treatments of radiation and wanted her to continue taking her Xeloda 2 times a day. Yesterday Wednesday we have just finished her 25th radiation treatment. We will wait about a month to a month and a half to repeat her test.
Some of the symptoms my mom is experiencing now is, intense pain throughout her body, she describes is as feeling like she has the flu (body aches), severe esophagus spasms. She describes it as every time she swallows her esophagus contracts and wants to push the food back up. She is severely nauseas although she has not vomited once throughout this whole ordeal. Her hair thinned out quite a bit but she never lost it all. This whole ordeal has been quite hard for her, she would love more then anything to have someone to talk to that has gone through the same experience and also has stomach cancer. She goes to cancer support groups but has yet to find another with her same diagnosis. I was hoping that I could find someone for her to talk to so she doesn’t feel so alone in this process. This whole experience has been quite a rollercoaster….the good days are great and the bad days are horrifying. She has lots of questions that she would love to ask. My mom has the utmost determination and will power to live, she is not ready to let this horrible disease to take over and neither is her family.
So right now we are in this limbo of the unknown. We are waiting to see what is going to happen next. If anyone could please write me back I could pass the info on to my mom and maybe swap email addresses for the emotional support and questions. We need all the support we can get right now; this terrible news has left my family feeling quite broken and devastated. I don’t know what to do; I am so very scared and alone.
A hopeful daughter…
Aislinn
What Cancer Cannot Do
Although great progress has been made in treating cancer,
recovery can be long and painful, and some people
do not survive. Yet cancer is so limited...
It cannot cripple Love,
It cannot shatter Hope,
It cannot corrode Faith,
It cannot eat away Peace,
It cannot destroy Friendship,
It cannot suppress Memories,
It cannot silence Courage,
It cannot invade the Soul,
It cannot steal eternal Life.
It cannot conquer the Spirit.
Author Unknown