Mom

That is great news I am happy for you all.

Susan - Mar 2, 2008

That is great news I am happy for you all.

Absolutely fantastic. A brave, tough lady for sure.

In October, my Mom had nearly inoperable Liver Cancer throughout her torso–liver, right lung, and diaphragm.

As of Friday, March 7th, after radical resection surgery and 2 months of treatment, her PET scan showed she was fine.

To the prayer warriors from Ashland to Louisville, for the thousands who heard mom’s story on WLJC TV from Beattyville, and to those who sent encouragement through this blog, email, and in person, my thanks.

Praise God, what great news!

Jeff Roberts - Dec 1, 2007

Praise God, what great news!

Happily, Mom didn’t have chemo on Friday.

Her oncologist looked at the results of her PET scan and said the surgeon was full of it.

She doesn’t have ASC, she has CCC, Cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile duct that is fairly rare (1-2 cases / 100,000 ppl), but which is curable through surgery. Mom had surgery, and there’s no evidence the cancer had spread through her lymphatic system.

The short answer: Prognosis is much better than with ASC. Surgical resection allows for a cure, and follow-up radiation shows good results. Mom’s scheduled intensive, local radiation 5 days a week for the next 5 weeks, and an oral chemotherapy tablet after that. Her hair probably won’t fall out.

Glad to hear Markey’s on the case and being agress…

Jeff Roberts - Dec 4, 2007

Glad to hear Markey’s on the case and being agressive. We’ll keep her and you guys in our prayers.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers as I’ve shared about Mom’s sickness. I’ve not posted more, out of deference to her, and simply because we didn’t know much.

Mom had surgery on Halloween, but didn’t get any follow-up on pathology results until 2 weeks later, November 16th. That day, we went into the Transplant Clinic at UK Hospital (!) to get some results. I won’t go into it fully here, but it’s a rare hybrid of two cancers of the liver itself. They said to set-up an appointment with Oncologists as soon as she felt better.

So, on the 16th, I sat with my Mom at the Transplant clinic of the UK hospital to get the lowdown on her cancer. The room was on the 4th floor, off the ‘B’ elevators, and the atmosphere was grim. The people here had been or would be very sick, and most had a thousand yard stare, wishing they or their loved-one was anywhere but in that waiting room.

Except, that is, for my Uncle Dan.

From Daniel 3 (KJV):

16Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

17"If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.

18But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

Mom slept pretty well last night, and is finally cleared for some solid foods. Everything is working in her digestive system, and they seem to be managing her pain well. She was resting comfortably (for the first time in 6 days) last night, according to my aunt.

* * *

Well, today is election day, or “The day the democrats take back the keys to the cesspit.” Getting anything done in this state is akin to the intrigues of Lorenzo de Medici’s Florence…everything is a political game. Fletcher went into the governor’s mansions naively thinking he could undo centuries of entitlements and pork.

My mom’s having surgery tomorrow morning. Preliminary indications are the ’thing’ on her liver (they switch from calling it a lesion or a tumor every other time.) isn’t cancer. She still has one more test to undergo tonight, then she is “top of the list” for surgery tomorrow at UK.

I just spoke with her, and she seems a little tired and on some pain meds, but she doesn’t seem scared.

Thanks to all of you who’ve written offering prayers and well-wishes for Mom. She’s out of the hospital as of last Friday, but she’s going back tomorrow for further tests. What they think they know isn’t awful, but it will require more surgery.

She’s in pain, but she doesn’t seem too concerned (typical Mom, in other words!)

Please keep her in your prayers.

There are days where I want to rename this blog “Tragedy and trials du jour”

So Mom’s back in the hospital for tests…she has some sort of “lesion” on her liver. She just had her gallbladder out back in July, but had continued pain during her recovery.

I’d really like to list the litany of crap that’s going on in my life right now, but that’s not going to do me much good. I feel like an over-saturated sponge (appropriate, considering), and I’ve lost the ability to internalize anything.

First things first–thanks for the well-wishes! Mom’s doing okay–she had gallbladder surgery July 20th, and sailed through with flying colors.

We embarked on our vacation, and I’ll be writing several updates to go with that, but to summarize: Eight days with no computer, and barely any traveling in the car were awesome. The drive down there and back with two small kids was not so great. Didn’t get too sunburned.

A shout-out to my mom, the illustrious Dottie, who sent me this in response to my tongue in cheek blog entry below:

Write what you are feeling!  Is that not what a blog is all about?

Love ya, mom!

And I always *will* write what I want.

Didn’t realize my tongue-in-cheek post about Bill’s criticism of all the “car crap” on my blog would cause such an uproar.