Mom just diagnosed,,,,,
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Mom just diagnosed,,,,,
| Tue, 06-20-2006 - 11:05pm |
Hi. My Mom was just diagnosed with Breast Cancer. At this point, she is coping better than I am. I know that I have a lot of anger because it was never picked up on her yearly Mammograms. As it spread, not one Doctor or radioligist did either. She has been complaining on back pain for such a long time. XRay,after Xray,catscan--all were "normal". She even had her gall bladder out a few months ago because one doctor said that be be causing her back pain !!!! With a family history of Breast CA, you would hope that it might have set off some light bulbs there....sigh
She had fallen and an ER Doctor repeated a Cat Scan and saw that she had a lesion on her spine and half her spine was eaten away. Can you imagine? They finally found where it originated from but obviously it has spread because it went undetected for so long.
She has already made peace with this and it going to give Radiation,Chemo and hormone therapy a try. The Doctors have no idea how much time she has. If they do, they are not saying at this point.
She is in so much pain and I am sooooooo frustrated that 20 doctors and a million tests and not one picked up on it. It was found by an ER Doctor who is not even a radioligist. Scary.
Thanks for listening. I really needed to let it out.
She had fallen and an ER Doctor repeated a Cat Scan and saw that she had a lesion on her spine and half her spine was eaten away. Can you imagine? They finally found where it originated from but obviously it has spread because it went undetected for so long.
She has already made peace with this and it going to give Radiation,Chemo and hormone therapy a try. The Doctors have no idea how much time she has. If they do, they are not saying at this point.
She is in so much pain and I am sooooooo frustrated that 20 doctors and a million tests and not one picked up on it. It was found by an ER Doctor who is not even a radioligist. Scary.
Thanks for listening. I really needed to let it out.


Noel,
Sorry to hear about your mom.
Kim
Noel welcome to the board :)
Judy
cl-ivhjude
Thanks so much Judy and Kim for your response and kind words.:)
According to both her oncoligists,it was not "fast spreading" as they believe it was there for years. NOW they tell us that her Mammo a few years ago showed a "dense" area I believe, but the Radioligist did not recc. follow up as she said it was "normal and not consistant with malignancy." She was obviously mistaken and it appears that my Mom fell into the 10 percent of false-negative readings. I just feel that with her family history any changes that appeared normal or not, should have been followed up extensively.
I believe that it was not picked up on the spine xray because they just read it as arthritis". According to her Doctor they kept reading it as a "normal" but stated they had difficulty seeing certain areas of the spine. Well, they could not see those areas because they were not there......I guess in hindsight, now they see the issue.
She is almost 80 with many other health issues. They are going to continue Radiation and start Chemo and hormone therapy. I am keeping a positive attitude and she has made peace with whatever the future holds for her and she is more concerned about me.
Thanks again.....
Judy
cl-ivhjude
Noel
I just wanted to let you know that I know your anger and you frustration.
Welcome to the board Tara, I am so glad you posted.
Judy
cl-ivhjude
Thanks so much for posting. I am sooooo very sorry that your Mom and your family are dealing with this. I truly feel your pain.
I think that one reason that I am so disappointed in the medical field at this time,is because I work in the medical field. I still can not believe all the Doctors she saw and all the tests and...nothing. It is ironic that you mentioned the density because I just read my Mom's old Mammo's and that was always mentioned--density and calcification. The heavy dense area that they saw as "normal" is where the tumor is. Sigh......
I do not blame your Mom for opting to remove both. I know that she is scared. My Mom was coping better at first. Now she is starting to get depressed. She says that she is not scared to die but she wanted more years with me and her grandchildren.
She has started the radiation and she is all for trying the Chemo and hormone therapy. She is aware that even if the treatments "help",the outlook is not promising. It has spread and her Doctors have been encouraging but have tried to throw a little realism in there.Her age also plays a part. They are not even sure that she can withstand the Chemo but are willing to try. I have hope because the Doctors are not God and they cant walk on water.
Please feel free to post. If it was not for my children,my husband and the support I have recieved from others, I do not know how I would be coping.
I am holding a good thought for your Mom and you. Please let me know how everything goes.