I hope this makes sense. I am so tired. Kyle is out of town and Emily is sick. She was up or restless most of the night last night.
My mom does have cancer. It is a reoccurance of her throat and mouth cancer. Basically, the cancer IS IN HER LUNGS but it is NOT lung cancer. It is metastasized squamous cell cancer from her Stage IV oral cancer. So, this cancer that is in her lungs is Stage IV also.
There were a lot of dead cancer cells in her lungs from her prior treatment. When my mom was diagnosed two years ago, her cancer was already at a Stage IV. It was in her lymph nodes but because of the stage of her cancer and because she was SO SICK her doctors did not feel she could withstand the surgery to have the nodes removed. So they treated her with chemo and radiation. Because of the lymph node issue and because of the advanced stage of the cancer, her doctors were pretty sure the oral cancer had metastasized somewhere else, but if it had, they could not find it with any CT or PET Scans, which meant that the masses of cells (also known as tumors) were not large enough for detection. So, what they think is that there were tiny tumors in her lungs two years ago and the chemo killed the majority of the cancerous cells in her lungs at that time, but that in the core of the tumors, cancerous cells still lived and that is why the tumors continued to grow and went from her right lung to her left lung.
Apparently, the surgeon in November biopsied dead cells. Now, I don't know why the pathologist could not tell that those dead cells were dead and were once cancerous. And if he did know this, I don't know why we were not told. This time around, the pathologist could tell which cells were dead, which were dead and cancerous, and which were living and cancerous.
Dr. K is going to give my mom small doses of chemo once a week for three weeks and then give her a week off. He will do this for eight weeks and then she will have another scan. This is different from last time. Last time, she had a PET scan prior to beginning treatment, had 42 weeks of chemo basically in a row (sometimes her chemo was held if she was anemic or too sick but no breaks were planned), and she didn't have a PET scan again until the end of those 42 treatments. They told her that she will probably lose her appetite and that they fully expect her to become neutropenic (low white count) and need shots. When she comes in for shots, they will give her IV nutrition. Right now she weighs less than 90 pounds. (91 with clothes on)
I asked what the goal for treatment was, and the physician's assistant told me that the best we can hope for, barring another miracle from God, is for the tumors to stop growing, maybe shrink a little, and for the cancer not to continue to spread. Remission is not really in the picture this time.
I also snuck out and asked the physician's assistant my mom's prognosis. My mom is happily ignorant and could not handle knowing her prognosis, so I didn't ask in front of her. The p.a. went and talked to Dr. K and then came back to me and said that Dr. K said that when cancer reoccurs like this that the prognosis is not good. She said that the expectation is that my mom has up to a year at the most.
That is sad news, but I was prepared for it. In fact, I was very afraid that we would go there today and the doctor was going to tell us that there was no need to do chemo and that my mom only had several weeks to live. She is so frail and her hands and feet have a blue tint. Her lungs function only at 38% and she weighs so little, it just would not have surprised me. But I am glad that Dr. K feels confident confident enough in my mom's ability to handle treatment that he has planned two rounds of chemo (six treatments). But I also know that he wants to do the PET scan after those two rounds so he can see if there is a benefit in continuing. It's going to be rough, and I hope she does okay. Right now she doesn't think her diagnosis is that bad. She thinks she is going to have some chemo and bounce right back. She just doesn't get it.
My mom does have cancer. It is a reoccurance of her throat and mouth cancer. Basically, the cancer IS IN HER LUNGS but it is NOT lung cancer. It is metastasized squamous cell cancer from her Stage IV oral cancer. So, this cancer that is in her lungs is Stage IV also.
There were a lot of dead cancer cells in her lungs from her prior treatment. When my mom was diagnosed two years ago, her cancer was already at a Stage IV. It was in her lymph nodes but because of the stage of her cancer and because she was SO SICK her doctors did not feel she could withstand the surgery to have the nodes removed. So they treated her with chemo and radiation. Because of the lymph node issue and because of the advanced stage of the cancer, her doctors were pretty sure the oral cancer had metastasized somewhere else, but if it had, they could not find it with any CT or PET Scans, which meant that the masses of cells (also known as tumors) were not large enough for detection. So, what they think is that there were tiny tumors in her lungs two years ago and the chemo killed the majority of the cancerous cells in her lungs at that time, but that in the core of the tumors, cancerous cells still lived and that is why the tumors continued to grow and went from her right lung to her left lung.
Apparently, the surgeon in November biopsied dead cells. Now, I don't know why the pathologist could not tell that those dead cells were dead and were once cancerous. And if he did know this, I don't know why we were not told. This time around, the pathologist could tell which cells were dead, which were dead and cancerous, and which were living and cancerous.
Dr. K is going to give my mom small doses of chemo once a week for three weeks and then give her a week off. He will do this for eight weeks and then she will have another scan. This is different from last time. Last time, she had a PET scan prior to beginning treatment, had 42 weeks of chemo basically in a row (sometimes her chemo was held if she was anemic or too sick but no breaks were planned), and she didn't have a PET scan again until the end of those 42 treatments. They told her that she will probably lose her appetite and that they fully expect her to become neutropenic (low white count) and need shots. When she comes in for shots, they will give her IV nutrition. Right now she weighs less than 90 pounds. (91 with clothes on)
I asked what the goal for treatment was, and the physician's assistant told me that the best we can hope for, barring another miracle from God, is for the tumors to stop growing, maybe shrink a little, and for the cancer not to continue to spread. Remission is not really in the picture this time.
I also snuck out and asked the physician's assistant my mom's prognosis. My mom is happily ignorant and could not handle knowing her prognosis, so I didn't ask in front of her. The p.a. went and talked to Dr. K and then came back to me and said that Dr. K said that when cancer reoccurs like this that the prognosis is not good. She said that the expectation is that my mom has up to a year at the most.
That is sad news, but I was prepared for it. In fact, I was very afraid that we would go there today and the doctor was going to tell us that there was no need to do chemo and that my mom only had several weeks to live. She is so frail and her hands and feet have a blue tint. Her lungs function only at 38% and she weighs so little, it just would not have surprised me. But I am glad that Dr. K feels confident confident enough in my mom's ability to handle treatment that he has planned two rounds of chemo (six treatments). But I also know that he wants to do the PET scan after those two rounds so he can see if there is a benefit in continuing. It's going to be rough, and I hope she does okay. Right now she doesn't think her diagnosis is that bad. She thinks she is going to have some chemo and bounce right back. She just doesn't get it.
I am sorry Tammy 
You and I both know about Cancer and Mom's. All too well. I pray things go well and smoothly for her (and you).
Thanks y'all. 
Tammy, I am so sorry. 
