Today pretty much started out as usual, with me going to see my mom. I ran into her doctor, who told me that the CT scan results showed she might have a tumor called myeloma in her abdominal area. I had no idea what this was, but I was very upset and afraid to look it up. I know the ending, oma, means some kind of cancerous tumor, but I didnt know if it was benign or malignant. By the time I got home, I just wanted this all to go away. I wrote Jeff an email at work and told him what the doctor told me, and that he could look up myeloma if he wanted to. I was too afraid to do a search, so I just lied down on the couch and went to sleep.
When Jeff got home, I got brave enough to look it up. So, I do some Google searches and come across this: "Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow." NOT what I wanted to read. To quote the Medline Plus website, "Multiple myeloma is characterized by the excessive growth and malfunction of plasma cells in the bone marrow. The growth of these extra plasma cells interferes with the production of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. This causes anemia, susceptibility to infection, and increased tendencies toward bleeding."
A lot of the symptoms sounded like the ones my mom had, such as tiredness, fatigue, anemia, possible kidney problems, and susceptibility to infection. One odd thing though was that she had no bone or back pain, and this illness mainly took place inside the bone marrow. Although it sounded possible, it didn't quite fit. I just kept sitting there, kind of stunned, and then I said to Jeff, "My mom might have cancer. Look at what these pages are saying. She might have cancer." BUT that wasn't definite until an ultrasound was performed to rule it out, which the doctor said would probably happen. He sounded cautiously optimistic. So I was too. As of then, in my mind, my mom did NOT have cancer.
I told my dad in general terms what the doctor told me (this was before I had looked up the meaning of myeloma). I said that she might have some sort of tumor in her abdomen and the doctor is going to perform an ultrasound to rule it out. As usual, he didn't understand, thought the worst, and immediately jumped to conclusions.
That night he called my aunt who lives in Idaho, and pretty much told her that my mom had cancer. Then my aunt called her sister (my other aunt), who lives near me, and told her what my dad said. THEN my cousin, (the daughter of my aunt who lives near me) called me and told me that...well all the stuff up there (I hope you could sort all of that out). Ugh. So I had to call the family network to get everyone on the same page. First, when my cousin called, I told her that what my dad said was NOT true. Then I had to call my aunt in Idaho and told her it was not true. By then I was upset though, and she asked if I needed her to come down here. I started crying and she talked to Jeff. Jeff said that my mom was okay for the moment and she shouldn't worry about coming. Then I had to call my dad and tell him that he caused a big scare and that it WAS NOT CONFIRMED that my mom had cancer...that they were going to do a scan for it, but she DID NOT HAVE IT. I never even MENTIONED the word cancer to my dad.
Nevertheless, the next day my dad asked me if my mom knew she "wasn't coming home." I said, "what do you mean by that?" He said something like, "because she's terminal isn't she?" OMG. I told him NO, she is NOT terminal. She is NO LONGER in the ICU and was only in there for two days when she was first admitted. My dad has been having memory problems for a long time and it is so hard to keep explaining things to him.
When Jeff got home, I got brave enough to look it up. So, I do some Google searches and come across this: "Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow." NOT what I wanted to read. To quote the Medline Plus website, "Multiple myeloma is characterized by the excessive growth and malfunction of plasma cells in the bone marrow. The growth of these extra plasma cells interferes with the production of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. This causes anemia, susceptibility to infection, and increased tendencies toward bleeding."
A lot of the symptoms sounded like the ones my mom had, such as tiredness, fatigue, anemia, possible kidney problems, and susceptibility to infection. One odd thing though was that she had no bone or back pain, and this illness mainly took place inside the bone marrow. Although it sounded possible, it didn't quite fit. I just kept sitting there, kind of stunned, and then I said to Jeff, "My mom might have cancer. Look at what these pages are saying. She might have cancer." BUT that wasn't definite until an ultrasound was performed to rule it out, which the doctor said would probably happen. He sounded cautiously optimistic. So I was too. As of then, in my mind, my mom did NOT have cancer.
I told my dad in general terms what the doctor told me (this was before I had looked up the meaning of myeloma). I said that she might have some sort of tumor in her abdomen and the doctor is going to perform an ultrasound to rule it out. As usual, he didn't understand, thought the worst, and immediately jumped to conclusions.
That night he called my aunt who lives in Idaho, and pretty much told her that my mom had cancer. Then my aunt called her sister (my other aunt), who lives near me, and told her what my dad said. THEN my cousin, (the daughter of my aunt who lives near me) called me and told me that...well all the stuff up there (I hope you could sort all of that out). Ugh. So I had to call the family network to get everyone on the same page. First, when my cousin called, I told her that what my dad said was NOT true. Then I had to call my aunt in Idaho and told her it was not true. By then I was upset though, and she asked if I needed her to come down here. I started crying and she talked to Jeff. Jeff said that my mom was okay for the moment and she shouldn't worry about coming. Then I had to call my dad and tell him that he caused a big scare and that it WAS NOT CONFIRMED that my mom had cancer...that they were going to do a scan for it, but she DID NOT HAVE IT. I never even MENTIONED the word cancer to my dad.
Nevertheless, the next day my dad asked me if my mom knew she "wasn't coming home." I said, "what do you mean by that?" He said something like, "because she's terminal isn't she?" OMG. I told him NO, she is NOT terminal. She is NO LONGER in the ICU and was only in there for two days when she was first admitted. My dad has been having memory problems for a long time and it is so hard to keep explaining things to him.
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