An update on Mama P

Where to begin...

Well, if you're here after seeing my recent Facebook post - and I'd figure you would be, since I haven't updated this as frequently as I've promised - then you know that this blog has shifted from a running-cooking-running-eating type of deal to something a bit more serious.  I've decided to keep friends and family informed about my Mom's cancer progress via this blog, since there are a lot of details and frankly, I didn't want to put up a 7,000 character status when I wanted/needed to share information.




Quick background for the uninitiated: in February 2009, my Mom was diagnosed with endometrial cancer (aka cancer of the uterus). They caught it early enough to where it was considered Stage IB, meaning that it hadn't gone beyond her uterus to any other organs or lymph nodes, and treatment would be a major surgery. After a hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oopherectomy (ovary removal - Lord, what a mouthful), and the removal of a large number of lymph nodes for further testing, the doctor declared her cancer-free.  Chemotherapy and/or radiation weren't considered necessary - typically, if caught early enough, this cancer is considered fully treatable and recurrences happen in less than 3% of patients.

Fast-forward to September 2012, and my Mom discovered that she was part of the unlucky 3% to experience a recurrence. Here's where the numbers and the facts tend to get ugly, especially as you look at the 5-year survival rates; I'll spare you all of the details, because of this: statistically speaking, both Mary and I should not be alive right now. The numbers were never in our favor. You can look much further back to this post if you aren't familiar with what happened during my pregnancy and Mary's birth.

Keeping that last bit in mind, I tend to not dwell on the numbers and the statistics - I agree that they are good to know, and I want to be aware of how much of a jerk this cancer is to treat - but I also don't believe in taking a pessimistic viewpoint, either.

With the September 2012 recurrence, her oncologists - two very skilled and wonderful Navy doctors that we are so blessed to be working with - performed surgery to assess how pervasive it was, and to work out a treatment plan.  The cancer had spread to her omentum (the fat pad that covers your stomach - basically tissue over the abdominal organs) and her inguinal (groin) lymph nodes.  Now, the previous Stage IB cancer has turned into a much more annoying, and aggressive, Stage IV. Further surgery - such as removal of the omentum - was not recommended, and the standard treatment would be 6 rounds of carboplatin and paclitaxel,  two strong forms of chemotherapy used in gynecological cancers, also known as the carbo-taxol regimen.

I did receive a second opinion from the doctor that treated my Mom's first bout with this, and his team agreed that this would be the best course of action.

In January 2013, Mama P finished up 6 grueling rounds of carbo-taxol. She definitely handled it like a champ - I couldn't have been prouder of how strong she was during the series. When she started to lose her hair, she had me take her straight to a salon, where she  calmly set down her purse, looked the stylist in the eye, and said, "I'm going to need you to shave this all off. I'm going through chemo, and if I'm going to lose it, might as well just take care of it all at once!" She said this with a smile on her face, and not a trace of self-pity. The stylist, sniffling and with tear-filled eyes, praised her bravery and GI Jane'd her on the spot. I took one look at Mama and said, "Well, don't you have a nicely shaped head." And we paid for the haircut, Mama donned a sassy headscarf, and we went out to lunch.  That story should give you a pretty good idea of the fantastic attitude she has about everything she's gone through.

After her rounds were finished, Mama headed back to the docs for her three month post-chemo follow up PET CT scan, which showed no evidence of cancer.  With this cancer especially, the word "remission" seems to be off the table, so we were happy enough with hearing that the previous areas of cancer were dead and that her lymph node tumor was shrinking, with no cancer cell activity evident.  

And so here we are, September 2013. Due to some lymph node swelling, the docs decided to go ahead and do another expedited PET CT. We received the results on Friday, and they basically showed us the same thing that the first scan last September showed - cancer cells in the inguinal lymph nodes and in the omentum. 

One thing we've been told all along is that the cancer is considered incurable - that no matter how you treat it, there will always be a recurrence, and so the best you can hope for is to stop its progress enough with chemo, etc, to get the "no evidence of cancer" bill of health.  So we've been prepared for an ugly PET CT scan; we were just hoping it would be years before we had to think about it again.

But, it is what it is. As previously mentioned, we're pretty positive people around here. Things are a bit dicier with a third incidence of the same cancer, however. Chemotherapy is on hold for now - because my Mom is actually feeling pretty great, the docs don't see a need to start it immediately, because it tends to make you run down, nauseous, exhausted, and many other things that make overall quality of life diminish.  Along with that, chemotherapy also tends to have diminished returns the more you use it - and keep in mind, I'm only speaking to endometrial cancer, not anything else.

For now, the doc is trying hormone therapy to see where that can take her.  I'm also researching clinical trials and exploring other options that may be available to us. Some gynecological cancers tend to respond well to hormones, and hormone therapy can stop the continued growth/spread of the cancer. We're praying that this is the case for Mama P, and the nice thing about it is that she doesn't experience too many side effects, save for being a little more tired and a lot more hungry than usual. 

Which brings me to the lighter part of this blog - with the increased appetite, there should be a lot more in the way of cooking posts and tips showing up here. I already have a recipe in the queue, but somehow the thought of writing a blog post titled "Cancer and Garlicky Smashed Potatoes" wasn't working for me. Also, anyone who doesn't know my dry sense of humor might have been offended, and that's certainly not my intent. (Though, let's quote Jimmy Buffett here: If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane.)

(Anyhow, that blog post about Garlicky Smashed Potatoes is on its way, just not right this second.) 

I can't tell you how much the love and support means from our friends all over the world. The calls, the letters, the cards, the text messages, and the care packages have brought the biggest smiles to my Mom's face and she couldn't be more appreciative of the prayers that are being prayed daily.  Through this I think we've both realized we have the absolute best friends in the world, and our positive attitudes and hopeful spirits are constantly fueled on by the encouragement we get from you. 

I promise to keep everyone updated, and if you have any questions to ask me, feel free to reach out...and thanks for reading. 
~Katherine