Dear Forum Members,
Thank you for all the answers and support and for being there for me. My mother, though, is beginning to deteriorate and is losing some functions. Over the last 4 days she has declined rapidly and the doctor, who ordered an emergency MRI for last night, knew without even seeing it that this is not good. She advises us to look into hospice and said that we have-at best- a few weeks. She's been amazing and was so saddened; she told me she thinks about my mom all the time and worries about her at night. I know as you're reading this some of you might say: "I was given 2 weeks to live and came out of it/beat it..."-but it won't be the case here. We've seen the down-hill spiral this is taken. She's almost not using her left side at all- initially it was post-surgery/stroke-like neglect- but at this point she's just losing function because she's not using it much. This morning she didn't realize she had to urinate and did so all over... it's sad to watch, but we knew it was coming. Not that it made it easier by any means, I don't know... The MRI results will be in this morning and I'm certain they will confirm the dr.'s belief that her tumor has grown at least 20% over the last few weeks. She failed Temodar and the Avastin/CPT11 isn't working, either... Her tumor was unsual from the start and because it was "like pearls on a string" as opposed to one lump, it was harder to control. We had hope, prayed, and believed all along that she will "fight this" and be among the 2-3-5 year "long term" survivors, but I guess that's not gonna happen now. I don't know what else to say, but I'll keep everyone posted. At this point we told my (16 year old) brother, some family members, and we're planning on making the next few weeks as pleasant as possible and provide the best quality of life though family support and in-home hospice and then eventually "real" hospice care. I'll keep everyone posted.