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DAWNK'S MOM


My mom was diagnosed in 5/01, she was 61, she was jaundice and they found the cancer on the pancreas by a ct scan.. 5/10/01 she went in for the whipple, they had to abort it due to liver mets... 6/11/01 mom started her gemzar treatments, this made her very sick, she was supposed to be 3 weeks on one week off, but she was sick 5-6 of the 7 days... She stuck to the schedule though and fought hard.. In august she went to her florida home hence new doctor, he added what the nurse called an extra bag of 'water' to the end of the gemzar cocktail.. I never went with her to the treatments, but she said it was 1 bag water, 1 bag nausea, 1 bag gemzar then one more bag water.. It also helped her to drink lots of water, before, after and during treatment... This new cocktail was great, mom was only sick maybe 2 days at worst.. She got out and did things, lived her life... November another ct scan, doctor said she was in remission, and she could stop the chemo in december... February another ct scan, cancer back with vengenance, mom refused any further treatment... One day I asked her why she said that it was just keeping her alive, not living... Very hard thing to hear, but it was her life.. She came back home to michigan in april she was very tired most the time... Mid may she was getting worse, sleeping 90 percent of time, not eating much etc... June 12 we called hospice in, mom actually sat up and talked with the nurse and helped us make decision it was time.. They brought hospital bed the next day.. That was a thursday, on sunday we had to resort to diappers as mom was unable to get out of bed anymore, She was pretty much comatose from sunday to early wednesday morning when she died.. My mother passed away on June 19, 02... 13 month battle...She thankfully looked peacefull, slight smile on her face and her eyes were closed... Her name was Dolly and I miss her very much, the grieving has been a difficult road, its almost like the pc roller coaster of ups and downs has never ended... Good luck & God bless to anyone faced with this beast..

DawnK

Posted 03/29/2003 10:44 pm by DawnK
E-mail Address: catsey28@coslink.net

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