Update on Mom Oct. 02

Hello, All,

Hope this message finds you well.

Mom and Al came back to Seattle Tuesday. Mom had a follow up oncology consultation today. My apologies as I may have indicated in a previous update it was on Oct. 7 – that was a typo.

Here’s what we know … Mom has continued to lose weight, which concerns her oncologist (as well as those around her). For a three week spell she had been feeling poorly with nausea and low energy. This made it challenging for her to eat. Very pleased to report she’s been feeling much better the past five days. She attributes this mostly to streamlining her meds, discontinuing anything unnecessary. I find this extremely encouraging as it is a sign mom is more empowered in and enrolled in her own health care and choices. She met with an SCCA nutritionist today, and I’m optimistic since she’s feeling better she’ll be able to maintain a healthy weight. In the meantime, the weight loss means her oncologist wants to monitor her more closely.

Today we had anticipated having an understanding of the status of her tumor(s). Mom’s lungs have accumulated more fluid, and this made it too challenging for the radiologist and the oncologist to make a reasonable determination about the cancer based on today’s scan. The next step is to drain her lung fluid, which is expected to provide mom relief from her shortness of breath (which has been one of her top, persisting complaints). This will be followed up by another scan, and at that time we anticipate knowing how effective the daily pill treatment is. This is slated to occur within the week, so expect another update from me in the days ahead. Her oncologist Dr. Martins said with regard to her treatment, “It would be highly unusual for the tumor not to respond.” This particular medication has been in use for cancer treatment practice for the past 10 years, so there is much data known about it.

The best news is that mom reported to Dr. Martins she is feeling better today than she had been prior to beginning treatment, the three week period of feeling lousy being the exception, and that seemed to dissipate about five days ago. So her general wellness appears to be on an upward trend.

Also, I had mentioned some of the realities my mom was experiencing at the time of my last update. While I will do all I can to keep things positive, and recall having asked you to do similar, I feel it is important to also acknowledge when things are what they are; good, bad or otherwise. Knowing what someone is dealing with tends to best enable us to know better how to support them. Mom has embarked on a major life journey. Treatment and management of this terminal disease is expected to help prolong and give her a normal quality of life as much as possible. Life has its ups and downs. There will be times she needs more love, support and encouragement than others. She appreciates so much all your outpourings, thank you.

If you have questions, please let me know.

All my best,