so much has happened....

I haven't posted on my blog for a long time, but I have been very busy.

School has been really good lately. I'm feeling more comfortable and getting more and more into a ruitine. I'm looking forward to next semester because I may not have to share my classroom AND I only will have one class of Art 1 instead of 2. Less freshmen is always a good thing!! :)

About a month ago, my mom told me that she had been feeling strange lately. We were sitting at the kitchen table. I was eating some chocolate chip cookies. She told me her symptoms. She said she had been feeling kinda bloated. She said that she hadn't been able to eat much. Normally, my mom would be all about some chocolate chip cookies. She didn't even take a bite. We had eaten steaks for dinner. She didn't finish hers. This was very unusual behavior.

She told me that she had been losing weight...but she felt like she had gained! She had been feeling tired and actually having some back and pelvic pain! I was concerned, but honestly, I thought that it might just be that she was going through menopause. I don't know much about that topic. I think she thought the same but she decided to make an appointment with her gynocologist. The soonest appointment she could get was for Dec. 1st.

I absolutely LOVE Dr. Oz and I record it on my DVR everyday. I always have at least 7 episodes saved on my DVR. So, I don't usually watch it on the day that it airs. However...on Veteran's Day...for some reason... I did. The first 15 minutes was about the early signs of ovarian cancer. I tried to find the video online, but couldn't. However, here is a video from the lady doctor that was the guest on the show that day...




Here is a link to Doctor Oz's website on the topic. http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/ovarian-cancer-secret-killer

After I watched this show.... I was scared! My mom had ALL of these!! As soon as I watched it.. I called her.

Heres about how our convo went....
Me: "Did you watch....." (she didn't even let me finish!)
Mom: "YES!.... I taped it because I thought that it was going to be about Alzhiemer's.
Me: "I'm scared!"
Mom: "I have ALL of those symptoms, but I have an appointment. Its going to be ok, but it is weird how compelled I felt to watch the show today." (Mom never watches Dr. Oz)

So, that was on a Wednesday. Mom decided to talk to her Pastor about it that night at church. He encouraged her to make a trip to her general practice doctor to see what was going on. So, she did.

The next week, she went to her doctor. They took some blood and told her that they needed her to have a CT scan. She did this on Wednesday the 18th. They told her that she had a mass in her pelvic area that was between the size of a grapefruit and an orange.

She was given some pain meds and told that she should just wait until her gyn. appointment. Cysts, etc. on the ovaries are very common and more than 90sih percent are benign. So, I guess they weren't very concerned.

So, thats what Mom did. Until the following day, Thursday the 19th..... she was at school in the afternoon, teaching about 60 6th graders. When she started having severe pain. She had to call someone in to watch her students. Her principal had to drive her home! But she DIDNT go to the hospital then. She went through the whole night, in pain, until the morning. She called my Aunt Jo, who is a nurse, and she (and my cousin Danielle, who is also a nurse) told her to go to her gyn. right now!

I was in my classroom, when my Dad walked in and said, "Your mom is in a lot of pain and I have to take her to the hospital." But, I decided to stay at school and just go to the hospital at the end of the day.

I called them a few times to check on them. They took her to her gyn. office (which is at Womens and Childrens) first and they did a sonagram. They admitted her immediately.

She called me during my last class of the day. She said, "Its a lot bigger than they thought and we're probably facing a little bit of a fight. They referred me to an oncologist." Then she asked me to bring her some chapstick and her pillow.

After school, I grabbed her stuff she wanted and headed right to the hospital.


She was in there from Friday through Wednesday. They took a ton of photos...CT scans, barium stuff, etc. On Tuesday she had a D&C. Then on Wednesday they sent her home. We asked Dr. Schiano what the mass was...and he said that he had no way of knowing until surgery. He told me that she would probably have the surgery some time in the first 2 weeks of Decemeber.

Since then shes been doing ok. She's still losing weight and her stomach is actually getting larger.

We are now just waiting on her doctor to call us back about the results of the D&C. We are looking forward (reluctantly) to the date of her surgery. We want that junk OUTTA THERE! The surgery is pretty rough. Dr. Schiano is supposed to be EXCELLENT though. He takes out pretty much everything and looks for cancer. Because of that, its very hard after the surgery. Mom will not be able to eat or drink for about 4 days.

If you have made it through reading this whole story, you have shown that you care. So, I want to ask that you pray for my mom. I'll be posting when we find out the date of the surgery. Also, pray for my dad. He needs some peace. He is realizing how much he depends on my mom for just about everything. Mom also needs to rest and let him take care of her. She is not used to that!