So this is new for me and something I don’t usually do so please bare with me.
Recently my mum has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Abdominal Cancer, however let me rewind back to July 2020 where it all began. My mum was not feeling too well back in July last year with a bit of an upset stomach and a small pain. This then became worse and lead her to contacting her GP, obviously this is during COVID and when the GP calls he they ask to see her which we thought was odd as they were only seeing urgent patients. Mum goes to the GP who send her to A&E with suspected appendicitis, after 6 hours they take mum up to a ward and admit he for the night.
After many tests, scans and consultant examination they decide to operate on mum and see what is going on. Once mum has the surgery and the surgeons have done their digging around they decide it’s not appendicitis and leave the appendix as they found a small tumor on her bowel. This comes as a massive shock as I am sure it would for anyone so we support her as a family and tackle what is ahead.
A few weeks later mum has a further operation to remove the tumor which leads to a small part of her bowel and intestines being removed along with the appendix this time round. Mum is in hospital for a week or so after this to recover and does so really well.
A few weeks pass and mum ends up in unbearable pain and my dad takes her back to A&E where she has to go in alone due to COVID and my dad waits in the car until he hears from her and what is going on. 7 hours later and they admit mum to do some further tests and my dad bless him has waited this whole time in his car to make sure she is ok. Unsure on what the pain was mum is in hospital for a few days and then sent home with pain meds.
October 2020 comes and mum is monitored due to the tumor and us being told it was cancerous, they test her lymph nodes and the results from that showed 4 out of 24 were cancerous which we thought wasn’t the worst outcome considering.
Anyway after numerous tests, scans, examinations we discover lung cancer. This is found in 1 lung and is staged at 3C, so further tests, scans, you name it mum had it. A few weeks later we are told the cancer has spread into both lungs and there is a shadow around her heart. Complete shock for us all but we support mum as always! December 2020 we are told the treatment that is going to be offered is radiotherapy and chemotherapy alongside and this will start January. I mean it’s not the news anyone wants to hear however we are so grateful mum can be treated.
January 2021, happy new year! Mums treatment starts 11th Jan so we get the house prepared, the new sofa in and sorted, new TV in the bedroom as we don’t know if she will be up to coming downstairs and we are as ready as we can be. 7th January mum gets a phone call from her doctor to discuss the scans she has had prior to treatment and they have found stage 4 abdominal cancer. Mums treatment for the 11th is cancelled as her abdominal cancer take priority due to being more advanced. This is something we were not expecting at all and as I am sure you can imagine we had lots of questions.
Mum has a call 15th Jan with the abdominal specialist and is told she can be offered chemotherapy however it will be intense and not guaranteed to work. Mum has decided to take the offer of chemo and starts treatment in the next 2-3 weeks
So there you have it, my little story of how my world has been turned upside down all from a small pain in my mums stomach. My reason for sharing this is due to struggling myself in dealing with everything and it was recommended to me by a friend to write it down so I thought why not?
If anyone has any advice or anything they think may be useful for me to know then please do reach out as I am trying to be as prepared as I can be
I aim to keep whoever does read this (if anyone does) updated as we go and thank you for reading
