Postby tizme » Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:20 am
Hi Sonia,
I'm sorry about your mom. My mom is sick too. It really sucks to watch someone you love go through this. But you found the colon club, just like I did, and you will be able to share your fears, your questions, your results, hopes, and good news here. We are all pulling for both you and your mom.
You will be definitely be inundated with lots of information at first, and you will reach out to all the websites you can find. I can only tell you that each person is individual, each cancer is unique. You will have to take it one step at a time and deal with what comes up, when it comes up.
Yes, stage 4 sucks. You both will have days filled with despair and others filled with hope. But you will get through this.
Right now my best advice is to get copies of all test results for your own files. Over the course of her treatment, you will see several different doctors, and you will need to know what treatment she is on, what surgery she has had, and you will probably want to track her CEA, PET scans, etc. to determine growth / shrinkage, etc. Doctors are only human,and they make mistakes, they have lots of patients...you have only one. So be the best advocate you can for your mom. It"s tough being a caregiver and watching the one you love be sick, but our moms did it for us, and now its time for us to do it for them. She is scared too.
The more info you have, the better questions you can ask of this board, and of the doctors.
We are treating stage 4 as if it is a chronic illness, and we are dealing with it one symptom / day at a time. My mom has chosen to live with cancer, instead of give up. I have been reading her the stories of the Stage 4 survivors on this board, and she is encouraged. I hope that one day her story will be one of inspiration and encouragement to others.
You will have lots of questions over the next few weeks about treatments and just wanting to vent. I encourage you to do so. And I hope that your mom has an inspirational story to tell one day as well.
Daughter of 68 y.o. mom
8/10 dx with 3C CC 10/24 nodes
colon resection
10 rds Folfax
cancer free in 12/10
5/11 Dx spread to ribs, maintenance chemo for life
8/11 Folfor w/ Avastin; radiation to 6 cm rib met
10/11 My beautiful amazing mom passed away