An uncertain journey

After grinding our way through an uncertain day yesterday, it seems that the journey may just be beginning.

  My mom spent ALL day yesterday waiting to be seen by a second doctor that was called in as a consult after the on call doctor saw her at 1 in the morning the night before.  I have never been that upset before I don't think.  She went from 11 am Thursday to 9pm last night with nothing to drink or eat and none of her regular medications, one n=being a heart med.  I understand the whole hurry up and wait thing, but it was bordering on torture.  I finally was able to talk the nurse into letting her have ice chips.  The whole thought was 'oh, she's going to have surgery today, so no food'.

Her pain level was nearly intolerable as well.  She was moved to an every 2 hour dose of Fentanyl and by the time she was at 90 minutes the pain was making her very uncomfortable again, counting the minutes until she could get the next dose.  Blood was drawn and we waited........I don't know how many times we were told 'he's on the way'.  The nurses have been very friendly so far.

At 9pm, the GYN oncology surgeon finally arrived.  Thank the Lord he was VERY kind and stood next to my mom holding her hand, hugged me and my grandma.  One giant blessing that's for sure.  However, the news he delivered was unsettling.  He told us that the special blood test they ran was for cancer antigens in the blood and to measure her tumor markers.  A big positive, the levels came back within normal range.  However, he said the mass is very large and 'pretty ugly'.  He feels it could possibly be stage 1 ovarian cancer, possibly stage 2.  On the other hand, the positives are that there were no signs of lesions on any other organs in the abdomen or pelvis and the fact that the tumor markers were within normal range.  Upon further examination, he found that he could not manipulate, or move, the mass-so it's very likely it has attached itself to some wall or organ.  Open abdominal surgery will be required and they will get a pathology report mid surgery so they know what exactly they are dealing with.

The kicker in all this is that the hospital tends to 'reserve' operating rooms for traumas on the weekends and the surgery has to be termed 'emergency' in order to get an OR.  Dr. Padilla said that if we were unable to get her pain under control then he would have no problem requesting the emergency surgery.  He put her on a pain med pump so she has a little more control over it....although it is still measured so she can't overdose herself on accident.  I talked with her this morning and she did sound a little more comfortable, able to actually say more than 2 words.

So, we've gone from kidney stones, to a ruptured cyst, to a possible cancerous tumor.  I pray that's where the speculating stops and we get positive answers from her surgery scheduled for Monday.  I pray it's one big, ugly, benign mass and all she'll have to contend with is recovering from surgery.  Cancer is awful and even the diagnosis of 'it could be' is enough to make the mind think of terrible stuff.  I told my mom we've got too much stuff to do, so she's going to be fine.  She has to.  I'll see to that.