On 5/18/2005 Annettedb wrote:
My Mom was in Florida this winter and I visited her in the middle of February....she complained of feeling tired and I noticed she wasn't eating as much as usual. She came back to Jersey on March 17th and I decided to take her to the hospital on March 20th because she was pretty tired and out of it. She complained of some travelling pains through her body and pains beneath her breasts. They found through her blood her liver enzymes triple what they should be and after a CT Scan found a large tumor on her liver coming from stage 5 pancreatic cancer. She passed away on May 11, 2005. I was with her non-stop from the minute of being told of the spread to her liver until the minute she passed. She was 76, white, never smoked, and otherwise basically healthy and full of life. I never knew that because a 76 year old women feels tired that it would mean she'd be dead in 2 months. I am destroyed by this and in need of help. She was my best friend. I can't believe something like this could happen but I know by talking to people that it's not that unusally with this type of Cancer. I have prayed but sometimes I feel so lost. It is a horrible illiness.
My father in law to be was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer stage 4, metastisis to liver, stomach on january 3, 2007. We made arrangements to go to the local cancer center here in houston, and he recieved his first chemo treatment on 01/12/07. It was debilitating, as we had expected, but he was not down for the count. On 01/19/07 he went to see his doctor, and was put on morphine patches for pain, as he was in excrutiating pain and had been for some time. Today is 01/20/07, and he has gone down his extremely in the last 24 hours. He is set to fly to Illinois treatment center on Tuesday, but at the rate he is progressing, i fear he will not make it there. His wife is in total denial, and is having a very hard time of it, despite her family and friends trying to help her. He is having trouble realizing that he cannot get up and walk on the morphine, he cannot function as he normally did, and while he is on the morphine he is not understanding this when we tell him. I have contacted the ctc and explained this to them, but unfortunatley the caseworker handling our case, will not be in until monday. I want to make special travel arrangements for him. He cannot function without the morphine, but he cannot travel having the trouble he is having. I feel like im in a catch 22 here.Ctc is our last hope. It is all we have left. The doctors here say " get your affairs in order, and wait" ctc has offered hope, and it is in our grasp, but how do we make it to the center with him in this condition? How do I help his wife come to terms with the fact that her husband has cancer, a serious cancer, that could and will kill him eventually. We sleep in shifts, 4 hours at a time, we constantly care for him, and his needs, what else can we do?
lost and loosing hope,
sissy