Mom ChemothreaphyTreatment Update

Mom got her first Chemotherapy (intravenous) IV, treatment yesterday she arrived at 8am and and was finish by 1:30pm. They ran a blood test at first to make sure her kidneys could handle the treatment and what dosage should be given. The nurse says she has to be given the treatment for the rest of her live. That is not cool, but she has to do what she has to do and  this is the outcome when one decides to take it upon there self to ignore there health in the early years.

She was a little nerves but everything went well, she felt a bit tired when she came out but that's all no other side effects yet.

The Outcome.

This post consist of somethings that I have read on-line and what the doctors has told me. I may break it up into two pieces. Since my mom has been released from the hospital on the 14th, she had her first Oncologist visit yesterday. I was able to get her in and out because she was on oxygen and the staff they had yesterday actually gave a *Bleep*.

She is still taking the hormone pill call Estrogen which is suppose to stop the cancer from spreading, she has been complaining about feeling chest pain after she takes them. When we mentioned that to her doctor her response was good it is working *shrugs* Yesterday they decided to start the knew treatment along with the Estrogen pill, she has an appointment next week Wednesday at 8am to start chemotherapy by injection. When I came home from work today I Google the Chemotherapy treatment. The doc had mentioned to us yesterday that it may affect her kidney alongside the fact she will begin to feel very tried. So I asked if they can check to see if it will or will not affect her kidney before they started it. The treatment will be giving to her every 6 weeks if her kidneys can handle it.

On our way home yesterday she rested her head on my should and said Vanessa am scared... I rubbed her on her back and said don't worry ma I'll be right here with you. She made me feel so sad. But my good spirit is what keeps her going most days so I could not let her see my eyes...because she would she the pain in my eyes that women raised me she knows me oh to well..I'll be posting about the Chemotherapy by injection treatment in a few I found some good information I can link to also. I am so happy I can blog when I want to, If I kept all this inside I would probably bust...lol

WHAT IS A SPOT IN THE LUNGS?

A spot in the lung usually refers to a small, discrete, rounded nodule visible on a routine chest x�ray. Spots may range in size from that of a dime to a silver dollar; because their shape is rounded they are often referred to as coin nodules. Coin nodules are never a normal finding, although they may be benign or malignant.
Benign lesions (another word for abnormal spots or coin nodules) are usually due to old infections that have healed to form a scar. Malignant lesions are usually due to lung cancer or cancer that has spread from elsewhere in the body to the lungs. Utilizing only the routine chest x�ray it is seldom possible to differentiate between benign and malignant lesions. This difference is critical since a malignancy (cancer) may be in its early stages and amenable to surgery. Conversely, a benign lesion usually warrants no treatment and will not affect the patient's life. What to do after finding a coin nodule on chest x�ray depends on the patient's age, smoking history, availability of old x�rays, and a host of other factors.
A lung infiltrate is an abnormality on chest x�ray larger than a coin lesion or spot. It is also non�specific and may be due to a variety of causes: pneumonia, partial lung collapse, cancer, tuberculosis, and pulmonary blood clots are common examples.

WHEN SHOULD I BE WORRIED ABOUT SYMPTOMS OF RESPIRATORY DISEASE?

Most symptoms of benign respiratory disease are self�limiting, that is, they last no more than a few days and then go away.
Symptoms lasting longer than a few days should probably be investigated, especially if they limit you in any way. Certain symptoms should be investigated immediately. These include:

• Severe or crushing chest pain. This may reflect a heart attack or other serious problem .
• Gross hemoptysis. This is more than simple blood�streaking of sputum; it means coughing up at least a teaspoon of bright red blood.
• Sudden shortness of breath at rest. This may be due to sudden development, or worsening, of heart or lung failure.
• Sudden deterioration of mental status. Although this is usually not due to respiratory causes, it may be, and demands immediate evaluation.
• Any symptom accompanied by incapacitating apprehension. This is another way of saying that if a symptom bothers you to the point you cannot function from worrying about it, you should probably have it investigated immediately.
• Your apprehension may be warranted.

WHAT CAUSES COUGH?
We all cough at times. It is a natural and normal protective mechanism to clear our airways of particulate matter that doesn't belong there. Cough is due to irritation of the airway lining by something, usually mucus, dust, secretions, or blood. The underlying condition may range from a simple cold or a mild asthma attack to heart failure or lung cancer.
When a cough lasts only a few minutes we think no more about it. However, many times, particularly after a cold or virus infection, the cough persists. Because it is so commonly associated with colds and upper respiratory infections, coughing is one of the most frequent respiratory complaints. Whenever a cough is associated with high fever, shortness of breath, production of foul smelling sputum, or severe chest pain, it should be evaluated by a physician. These all point to potentially serious but treatable causes. Beyond these associated symptoms, it is convenient to discuss the symptom of cough based on its time span.

Acute Cough: Lasts only a few minutes; it is a universal experience and is a normal protective mechanism.
Cough of Short Duration: This is a self�limited cough lasting less than three weeks, usually due to colds or upper respiratory infections. It may also be due to asthma, bacterial infections, or limited exposure to noxious material.
Chronic Cough: Lasts longer than three weeks; this is a time beyond which a cough can no longer be simply attributed to colds or viral infections.

MOST COMMON CAUSES OF A CHRONIC COUGH
Cigarette smoking
Chronic bronchitis
Emphysema
Asthma
Lung Cancer
Chronic post�nasal drip due to sinusitis or allergy
Tuberculosis
Chronic viral infection of the airways

WHAT IS HEMOPTYSIS?
Hemoptysis is the coughing up of blood. Many physicians distinguish between blood streaking and gross hemoptysis. In the former a few streaks of blood can be seen in a sea of otherwise whitish or grayish mucus; it is a common (but not to be ignored) finding in chronic bronchitis and in protracted coughs from any reason. Gross hemoptysis is when the majority of what is coughed up is blood. Although this may also be found in patients with chronic bronchitis, it usually demands a thorough evaluation for lung cancer or other serious illnesses.

MAJOR CAUSES OF HEMOPTYSIS
Bronchiectasis (chronic infection of the airways that leads to weak and dilated bronchial tubes)
Tuberculosis
Lung cancer
Pulmonary embolism
Pneumonia
Some forms of heart disease
Blood arising from anywhere in the mouth or nose
Chronic bronchitis (chronic inflammation of the airways associated with chronic cough)

WHAT IS THE BEST TREATMENT FOR A COUGH?
For a cough of short duration the best treatment is no treatment. Most cough medicines are really expectorants, designed to help you mobilize secretions, not prevent the cough. Although many times it may be helpful to give an expectorant, this cannot be considered "treating the cough." True cough suppressants, such as codeine, are related to narcotics and potentially harmful if they suppress the coughing of mucus or other irritating material. If a cough is truly non�productive of mucus and suppression is desired, one of the many codeine�containing compounds may be tried for a short period of time.
When a cough is due to a limited condition such as a cold, it will disappear when the patient improves. A chronic cough demands investigation for the underlying cause that, if found and treated, will also do away with the cough. If a thorough investigation does not reveal a specific cause, a trial of bronchodilators and/or corticosteroids may be helpful However, it cannot be overemphasized that treatment of a chronic cough is not the same as treating the underlying condition. Cough is a symptom and not a disease: treating only the symptom may miss the disease.

My Day in a Long Nutshell

It's one thing to see a lung disease that was already diagnosed, but another to see changes that no one predicted were there. The doctors are saying they see spots on my mothers Lungs, now I know for a fact that is not the medical terminology or diagnostics name for spotting on the lungs. So of course I went home to do my Google homework. I found out that spotting on the lungs can be multiple things ranging from not so serious problems, to very serious (as in lung cancer) lung problems. I don't know why the doctors are sugar coating her issues. This is going to be long...

My mom has trouble with her breathing and needs to be on oxygen 24/7 due to her lung issue. Doctors can not give her a biopsy to see exactly what the spots on her lungs are because she can go into cardiac arrests if they try to go in threw her mouth. Well hell I don't want that but I would like to know if this cancer has now spread to her lungs or not.

She has been in the hospital since 10/02-present and every piece of information i got i had to literally chase down a doctor to get it. Today I spoke the Social worker because her little high satiety ass was on vacy for 3 days while my mom has been sitting in that hospital bed for the past 3 days (am sorry I usually don't call people names but they are pissing me off). you would think she would have came in this morning and put together that information for my mom to get her oxygen tank and get the hell p out of there but know I call her around noon and she is telling me she has not gotten around to it yet. smh what the hell has she been doing all morning if my mom had her blood work in since Friday and she was qualified for the oxygen tank why is it that4 hours and 3 days later her paper work is not together and ready to go..ahhh man.

 She went ahead and applied for Medicaide because she is to young for Medicare. Medicaid is another one she had an appointment to take in her lease because she need documents to make sure she qualified well I had to fax the paper work for her because I called the office to let them know that she cannot make the appointment on the 7th because she has been hospitalized. They said it's okay just put her case worker name on the coversheet. fine 12:10am on 10/08 the lease got faxed i called her case worker this morning at 11am too business days later because they were closed Saturday and Sunday and there was a Holiday on Monday the lady has not went to the office to get the fax I was so pissed. I know our problem is know one else but these people get paid to do a job and they act as if they don't know what there job is sometimes and it is very annoying at time.

The reason why I guess I was so aggravated to was because my baby wasn't feeling good today I was at work unloading my 8am truck and I my supervisor called me and said V your son's school is on the line so when i get on the phone it was the Nurses office so apparently he has a little stomach bug nothing to serious just some aches. So I had to leave work at 9am to go and pick him up from school. I have been giving him hot ginger ale and lots of water he has been napping all day am not sure how he is going to feel tomorrow.

And on top of all of this my job is sending me for a random drug test between today and Thursday arrgghhh..

I don't wanna grow up...lol
Gia~

My weekend with Mom.

I was with my mom most of the weekend she was suppose to come home on Saturday but after one of the doctor's assistant physicians drew some blood to check her oxygen level they realized that her oxygen level was below normal. (Normal being 89+, my mom oxygen level was @ 55).The only way they were going to release her from the hospital was if she had an oxygen tank going home with her.The blood work was taken late Friday evening and all the social workers had left for the day and they will not return until Tuesday because of the holiday so that left her in the hospital for additional 3 days.

We have to pay cash for the tank until her emergency health insurance comes threw which is suppose to take 45 days. I am hoping that the insurance company will reinbrush us for the cost of the tank, at least there suppose to. When I spoke to the Social worker on Friday evening she mentioned to me that she was looking for an inexpensive tank because the company that they use are pretty costly being that most of the patients that use these tank are paying for it threw medicare etc...My mom also needs a portable oxygen tank for when she goes outside to hospitail vists and so forth.

It seems as thought the lung disease is taken a harder toll on her than the spreading of the cancer. we have came to find out in the past 2 weeks that the shortness of breath is coming from the lung problem which threw prior cat scans as far back as 2007 was spotted but the doctors did not payed it any attention...smh. All-in-all she has been hanging in there she has had lots of visitor so the medical staff knows she is not alone, her mom and aunt has been sending her lots of home cooked for so she is not subjuected to that blain hospital food and the whole family is praying for her. While I was there today her uncle, his wife and daughter drove up from Long island NY to come and see her. I thought that was very thoughtful of them. That is a 75 mile drive from LI to Brooklyn.

Since the doctor received the Pathology report he has prescribed her to take ten tablets a day one is Estrogen to help stop the cancer from spreading from the breast, one is a antibiotic to help cure the lung disease, and the 8 are low milligrams of medicine to help her eat because she has loss her appetite in the past 2 months she went from weighing 180lbs to 149lbs she said to me today I have not been 149lb since I was a teenage and she started lol. I am glad she has a sense of humor threw all that she is going threw. Those 8 pills are working too because every time I walk into her room she is munching on something..Which is a good sign.

Who Can You Run Too...

The doctors are not sure what is what with my mom and that is scary. I was got the pathology report to her today. She has been in the hospital since Friday, right before I left she had an appointment to see the lung specialist her breathing was so out of control that they admitted her into the ER immediately.

The night before I left i went to see her i brought her some oatmeal rain cookie and a cross word puzzle along with her bible. I got back in town 1am this morning and I went to see her today, they were suggesting that she takes a hormonal pill that will control her cancer rather than take the kemo. They also said that the cancer had spread to the lung but now from a recent cat scan they say they see some spotting on the lungs which has been there since 2007 but they are not sure what it is...

Now that they have received her pathology report they can go ahead and give her the proper treatment that she needs, The bad News is that she has had the cancer for 10 years already it has be deteriorating her body so he told me today that her cancer is untreatable because she waited to long to seek medical help. But they are going to go ahead and give her what she needs for now. That was not the greatest news, then again no news is good news.

I am trying to stay strong for her sake. But I knew this was going to be the outcome. They will be sending her home with an oxygen tank because she cannot breath without it. It seems like her condition went from bad to worst overnight but in reality it has been 10 years of her neglecting her health...I am praying sincerely day night..

Lung Specialist

My ride are the ones procrastinating now, I was suppose to be gone from 3:30pm (lol)

Today my mom had her follow up with the lung specialist. She had a 1pm appointment I could not make that with her because I had to pick my son from school.

I got my aunt to go with her when my mom got to the hospital they put her on the air machine right away ( I really don't know the medical terminology for the air machine, and am not going to try and act like i do:)..Her oxygen level was at 73% verses the normal100% level.

At 4pm she calls me and says they are admitting her. If it's not one thing it's another. I was thinking about canceling my trip OT but she told me not to. All she needs is her phone charger so on my way, I will pick her up one and drop it off by my aunt so she can take it for her tomorrow.

She was suppose to be going for a regular follow up for some test she took on the 21st of September, instead it turned into an overnight admission in the ER..Dammit.

If this font is to small please let me know I will change it