Bad News on the Homefront

Last week my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer that has spread to her liver. It was a devastating blow to all of us. She has been a smoker for 40 years now, so it wasn't a surprise that we would be dealing with this sort of situation at some point in the future, but I certainly wasn't expecting it right now.

She went to her GP last Monday because we thought she'd picked up a bug or had a nasty sinus thing going on. He threw antibiotics at her and scheduled her for a CT scan on Wednesday. By Wednesday she was so sick, weak, and dehydrated I had to take her for the scan. Later that night, after my sister & I discussed it, my sister took her to the hospital. They admitted her right away and started pushing I.V. fluids. Thursday the doctors wanted to see Mom's CT scan results to verify what they thought they had seen on a chest x-ray.

There is a mass in her right lung about the size of a golf ball and a couple of spots on her liver.

Friday morning she had a biopsy of the lung mass and then she went home Friday evening. Even though the doctors said it is cancer, they are waiting on the biopsy results to verify it is cancer. That result should be back today. By the end of this week we *should* know what KIND of cancer it is, and thus, what kind of treatment plan will be initiated.

Tomorrow, Mom is scheduled for a PET scan. This scan will tell us if there are more cancer spots anywhere else on her body. The oncologist seems to have a plan in place for her, and she's feeling pretty optimistic, so hopefully together they can beat this.