Sweet Pam

Experience has shown our family how very blessed we are to have the support of so many amazing people in our lives. This is one of those time we're definitely going to need that extra support, especially Mom. Last Wednesday, September 29, 2010, Mom was diagnosed with a malignant tumor on the top of her stomach, close to her esophagus. This would be terrible news to anyone and any family, and though we have had our rough times, our family feels a definite peace that Mom is going to get through this and continue to live. That's not to say the road won't be rocky. Part of the hard part was there wasn't much that we knew other than she has stomach cancer. Yesterday she was supposed to have an ultrasound guided endoscopy to try to see the extent of the cancer, then she was going to have an appointment with a surgeon I work for as well as an appointment with an oncologist up her in Raleigh, then meet another surgeon in Wilmington on Friday to see what all of her options are. Unfortunately, yesterday didn't go well to say the least. The doctor was unable to complete the endoscopy because he couldn't get the scope down to her stomach, partly because the tumor was larger, and partly because the scope they used this time was slightly larger. The procedure was supposed to take around 45 minutes, but Dad was called back to her bedside within about 15 minutes. Afterwards, she began to experience pain in her back and sides of her rib cage, and after getting X-rays and running some test, they found that Mom's esophagus was perforated during the procedure. She was admitted to New Hanover Regional Medical Center, more tests were run, and the doctors there felt it would be best for her to be treated at UNC. She was air lifted to Chapel Hill last night arriving around 10:00 p.m. Our family gathered around the ICU waiting room and waited for news. Tests were run, and her surgeon decided surgery was necessary immediately, so at 1:30 last night, or I guess I should say this morning, she was wheeled in to surgery. The hope was that they could remove the top 1/3 of her stomach, the lower part of her esophagus where there was some cancer present as well as the perforation and then reconnect the two. If that didn't work, they thought they would probably take out the cancerous parts, seal up the stomach, then run her esophagus under the skin near her collar bone and out into a bag. We were really crossing our fingers for the first scenario.

Dave and Amber went back to Amber's brothers house to try to get a little sleep and make plans for Olivia to be taken care of this morning, and Staci and Taelor came back to our apartment to get what rest they could as well. Dad and I had an interesting night of trying to find comfortable positions to sleep in in the ICU waiting room (which, by the way, is impossible). By 6:30 we gave up on trying to sleep and just continued our wait. Right around 7 this morning her doctor came out to report. There was cancer in 2/3 of her stomach, part of her esophagus, and a part of her lymph nodes. They had to remove her entire stomach, part of her esophagus and reroute it as I mentioned before. They put in a feeding tube, which will be in place for a year, and she has five tubes in other parts of her upper body to help drain away fluids. She'll need to heal for six weeks, then she's going to need chemotherapy throughout her body and radiation localized to her abdomen. After a year, they'll make her a new stomach made out of part of her colon. She had two incisions - one in the center of her chest, and one kind of along the line of her collar bone. The doctor expects she'll be in the hospital up here at UNC for 7-10 days, then discharged. For today she's being kept sedated, and the breathing tube is still in place since it was difficult to put in and they were worried that with her swelling, etc, if they took it out they would end up replacing it and it would be even harder doing it a second time. Dad and I were able to see her when she came out of recovery and she was very drowsy, but awake. She was in some pain, so they immediately gave her something for it and also to help her sleep and I was so glad. I know this is going to be an incredibley hard transition for her to make and the days and months ahead are going to be difficult ones. It's such a comfort to know that we have so many friends and loved ones out there to lend us their love and support. We would welcome any loving comments to the blog that we can pass along to Mom and at some point, hopefully sooner than later, have her read it for herself. We will try to keep everyone updated on anything going on with her as much as possible and we're hoping this blog will be a great tool in doing so. Thank you to everyone who has expressed your love and concern to us and we hope to continue to hear from you!