Finally was able to get on but I see my sister already messaged them.
I don't think I told you guys any more news since Monday though.
Her Tuesday appointment with her radiation doctor basically said that she needs to have radiation/chemo very quickly, and called it a "very nasty situation". So beginning on Monday, she will have radiation every day for three weeks straight. This is because they have found another (very small) tumor already growing in her head and they want to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Then once that is done they'll start chemo for the esophageal cancer, and she is getting what they call a "Chemo Port" installed in her chest today, this is so that she doesn't have to worry about them sticking her with needles and will make administration of the chemo very easy. In fact it will be so easy she can do it herself at home!
Sadly, they called it "currently uncurable", and it is stage 4. However, this does not mean she's close to death at all - stage 4 simply means the primary tumor has shot off other tumors, which it obviously did. It is still highly treatable, but it certainly is quite scary. The doctor asked if she wanted an estimated time frame but we have chosen (at least for the current time) not to get a number since we feel it's a little too early, not to mention averages really mean nothing because one guy might have lived only three months after being diagnosed with it but other people have lived 20+ years. He was actually quite happy to hear we didn't want any numbers just yet, and completely agreed with the decision. If it was truly immediately life-threatening I'm sure he would have said something about that. Obviously it is life threatening if we don't do anything but we're already doing a lot.
So, while it's scary and stupid and a very bad situation, we're still very hopeful that we can treat it. But it all got really real this week, once we started hearing the words chemo and radiation thrown around I think all of us probably had a bit of a mental breakdown. I snapped at a customer at my job the other day because she was so impatient to get her one doughnut and we only had one cashier at that particular time (9am) because one had quit and the other had just called in sick, so after I finished book keeping I went out to help. She was so angry and threw the doughnut bag at me and said "Your cashier over there refused to open another lane!". I just looked at her and said "Sorry ma'am we're short today, we don't have any other cashiers but that's why I'm out to help" in what I considered to still be a friendly tone.
"Well I have a hard time believing you don't have any more checkers in the store just hiding to make your customers wait" she said through gritted teeth. Again, I said "Sorry, no, but that's why I'm here". I then told her total where she handed me the money and as I processed it I heard her call me something under her breath (still don't know what it was), so instead of being polite and telling her the amount of change she was getting back I just placed it in her hand along with her receipt, looked at her and as I was about to say have a nice day she shouted "YOU'RE WELCOME" and literally ran to the service desk, where nobody was since I was out checking.
Huh, I guess I didn't really snap at so much as I just didn't wish her a good rest of her day... but seriously that was the morning after I had found everything about what my mom had to do now and I just didn't want to deal with cranky-ass people who feel entitled to their own personal checker.
Forum President until June 20th, 2016.
