Cancer! Shh!

Why does everyday bring new challenges and heartaches?

On Saturday morning, last week, I received a call from my sister. She advised me that Mom had cancer in her right lung, had given “Life Flight” from Walden to Fort Collins and was awaiting more answers from the doctors as to what the next steps were. At that time her Blood Pressure was 185. While the cardiac portion of the program was not an issue the growth and size of the tumor pressing upon the heart was.

My adopted mother had died of Colon Cancer, my dear Aunt Theda had died from Pancreatic Cancer and now finally, my birth mother was going to die of lung cancer. I guess sometimes you just can’t win.

Upon some testing, they found that the cancer (tumor) was squamish cell, which apparently means slow growing. They will administer three additional tests and if they are positive, they will remove the entire right lung. Apparently her present lung capacity if 20% coming from the left lung. If this tests do not prove well, they will use Chemo and Radiation to reduce the size of the tumor and then remove only the tumor.

Luckily the survival rate for removing the entire lung is 75%. Those are pretty good odds but still not the best.

(While I normally try to make sense grammatically, this time I most likely won’t be.)

Please forgive.