Hiya, this is my first blog and i'm using this as my coping mechanism....my mum is 62 and she is the strongest, most patient and kind woman i have ever met. We come from a large family, i have 2 elder sisters and 1 elder brother, many nieces and 1 nephew. My mum and dad divorced when i was 3 and she has brought us up on her own with no help at all and she has done a fantastic job.
My mums pain first started after a fall xmas eve 2009 when the weather was very icy and cold...xmas day she was in agony and after the new year she went to the doctors and they said she had shingles and pleursy. She was sent to the hospital for a chest xray as she had stopped smoking 2 weeks previously and she also suffers from COPD. The xray was clear and they sent her for an MRI scan for the pain in her back. The scan showed that my mums spine was crumbling due to oesteoporosis but they detected a small nodule on her lung so she was sent for another chest xray where this time their was this small thing on her lung. A CT scan was arranged for her, when she went for the scan, they also sent her for a bronchoscopy which was not a very nice experience for my mum at all. My mum expected it to be an enlarged cyst or something like that...not Lung Cancer. She didn't find out until a week later that it was cancer. The hospital first told my mum that it was Bone Cancer and that a small part had broken off onto her lung. I was hopeful as Bone Cancer has some good survival stats.
Last thursday me, my sister and one of my nieces went to the hospital with my mum to find out more and when her chemo will start etc., Apparently now, they are saying it is lung cancer that has spread to the bone and they will only be able to shrink the tumour and not cure the cancer. It's hard knowing this and we are not sure how long she will live for. I supposed we have to take each day as it comes. At the moment she still seems her normal self, she's very independent, still making her own meals, going to the shops etc but she is in a lot of pain. Today she has bought a heated back pad from Boots, not sure if this will ease the pain but it's worth a try. My mum has had her letter from Western Park in Sheffield to say her Chemo starts next wednesday. I feel helpless as me or my sisters don't drive and my brother works a night shift so it will be hard to get her up there and back. She is going to try a medicar for now but i've heard it can take a long time having to wait for other patients.
My mum wants normality, we are a family that visits my mum nearly every day, if not every day so we go and see how she is and if she wants anything from the shops or anything doing but at the moment she is determined to carry on and do it herself but once she starts chemo she will have to let us take over the reigns.
Well this is the start of my journey...my mums is going to be the toughest but i think the rest of the familys will come a close 2nd place. Thinking positive thoughts yet at the same time being a realist.
I'll be back soon enough to update my blog....thanks for reading all this without nodding off lol. C u soon xx
