Nov. 29: Mom has had a record number of doctor appointments over the last few weeks. We have a horde of seven of us attending them (Mom, Dad, Mom’s cousin Paula, Michael, Joey, me, and Andrew), and we are starting to get assigned seats as we cram in to the doctor’s office:)
I don’t think Mom’s tumor read the part of the book where it shrinks and goes away. It’s being far too obstreperous, and I wish there was a way to punish it. Our meeting with Mom’s surgeon, Dr. Matzke, yesterday wasn’t a positive one. When we met with him last week, after the fine-sliced CT scan, he said he didn’t think that the tumor was resectable (removable), but he wanted to do an endoscopic ultrasound to see if he could get a better view or find anything that showed that surgery was a good option. We were frustrated to hear that the ultrasound showed that the tumor is pushing on a
significant portion of the Superior Mesenteric Vein (SMV) and has actually invaded a portion of the vein. In Dr. Matzke’s opinion, the extent of the involvement of the tumor to the SMV leads him to believe that it is not operable.
We’re still getting two more opinions. On Friday, we’re going back to Dr. Sharon Webber at the UW Hospital, and on Monday, Dec. 5, Mom has an appointment with Dr. Mike Farnell
at the Rochester Mayo Clinic. Dr. Matzke said that if anyone in
the country could remove the tumor, it would be Dr. Farnell. The surgery Mom would like to have (that sounds so odd) is called the Whipple procedure. Here’s a good website that describes it.
If doctors Webber and Farnell also find that Mom’s tumor is inoperable, she’ll be looking at chemotherapy treatments to control the tumor and to try to prevent it from spreading. I believe Mom is trying to make an appointment with an oncologist while we’re up at Mayo to get another opinion on the next best tactics for chemotherapy.
So that’s the update this week. Mom’s in quite a state of limbo…not knowing if she’ll be in surgery soon or now, but as she’s been through this whole mind-numbing experience, her same, wonderful mommy-self. We had a lovely Thanksgiving and trip down to Chicago, and we appreciate every day.
~ Althea