Mom's treatments are now in the single digits. She has 7 more to go and then she will be able to ring the bell in the radiation oncology department's waiting area. (The bell is to symbolize the end of treatment, or on occasion a round of treatment, and gives those still in treatment hope. The day that I took Mom to UMMC, two patients rang the bell and everyone in the waiting room clapped. It's pretty emotional because of what each patient and their family goes through.)
At Mom's appointment with the medical oncologist today, she learned that her white blood cell count had increased (good thing) and therefore is to increase her nightly chemo dose from two pills to three until the end of treatment. She also lost 7 pounds (bad thing) so she has to increase her meals from 3 to 5 per day. If the surgical oncologist decides that she is not strong enough to go through surgery then he will not perform the Whipple procedure. Mom is okay with the number of meals-she even said tonight that she has a bit of an appetite (good thing) and wants to eat rather than what she has been doing which is eating because she knows it's good for her.
After all the treatments are finished, Mom will have another CT scan in about 6 weeks. Once the doctors have the results, her team will meet and decide what to do next. Hopefully, the decision will be to do the surgery, which has a recovery time of 5-12 weeks. Please keep Mom in your thoughts and prayers while she finishes her treatments and that the doctors have the power to heal her.
2 comments:
Yeah for single digits! You have been on my mind recently and I was wondering how things were going. I look forward to reading about your mom ringing the bell!
Glad to hear she is tolerating it well.
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