I am Vanessa, I am married with 3 children.
My lovely inspirational mother is 59 next week, just retired from teaching.....
So the introduction
My dear mum had been having lots of cramps in her legs and twiching in her eylids, pain after eating and a bit of loose stools but nothing to be overly concerned. We though it was through stress of her job, being a little over weight and having a bad diet?!
She decided to go to the doctors, who sent her for a US for gallstones, however this is where the jouney begins!
On the Ultrasound they saw lots of black nodules on her liver, she was then referred for a CT scan.
Her GP told her that on the CT scan they had found a lump in her messentary and mestastic tumour in her liver! we knew of this diagnosis a week before we saw the spcialist.
The day of her appointment 1st June 2012 at 14:30 a date for ever etched into my mind! with the specialist I have never felt so sick and worried, I knew what they were going to say I was really hoping for a mirracle.However the new was just as devestating as I had anticipataed, no mirriacle just devestation! She has CANCER and it was TERMINAL. I have never felt such a kick in the stomach a gut wrenching soul destroying word CANCER.
They said her liver bloods were good they couldnt find a palpable mass but she would need an endoscopy and colonoscopy to find the primary site they were 100% convinced it would be in her gastric / intestinal track.
We left that day with our lives shattered, calling my sister to tell her the bad news sobbing to my husband the worst ever!
She has these tests however all came back clear, so once again more waiting, they then informed her she now needed a liver biopsy.
This is where things have changed - her liver biopsy came back with the tumour in her liver being a Nuroendocine carcinoma!
This is a rare tumour of the endocrine system - only 3 in 1000 people are diagnosed with this type it has been classified as a well diffrentuated carcinoma which apparently means "slwo growing"
We are now waiting again she is due for a octreotide scan on the 9th August to see where the primary site is again! until then we are pretty much in the dark - there is very little research or information out on the WWW for this type of tumour.
So I will keep updated and post what I know when we find out, if only to help other going through this same diagnosis.
