Some of you remember I've talked here the last few months about my sister, Linda. To briefly sum it up, she noticed a spot on her foot of January this year, but it took 7 months, 6 office visits, and 3 different doctors before it was diagnosed as acral lentiginous melanoma. And by September she was stage III of a particularly aggressive cancer.
Linda's my sister by birth, but the role she's played in my life has always been mom.
She had surgery in October and 15 lymph nodes were removed, 5 turned out to be cancerous. The cancer was cut out of her foot, and she was left with wound vacs, lymph drains, 18" of incision, and no heel. She now has an additional 8" incision in her leg from last week's surgery to put a graft on her heel. Through all of this, she has not been able to tolerate any pain killers except Tylenol!
There have been problems; one wound vac quit working and didn't even have enough power to give the warning beep, so she got an infection and a huge healing setback. On the second surgery, she was given glucose (although it's on her chart not to) and her blood sugar zoomed up and that has been another healing setback. She had to endure side effects from 3 insulins before finding a 4th that her body could tolerate.
Her healing has been very slow, but she is fighting and trying to keep a positive attitude.
Now we are at the crossroads. Next week, Linda will have a test done to check that there are no cancerous tumors in her body, in which case she will be a candidate for interferon, which is her best hope for beating this.
She also needs to be healed by the end of December so she can take the interferon, otherwise the window where the drug is effective will be closing and it will no longer be a treatment option.
I know this is all depressing and I thank you very much for having read this far. I talked to Linda on the phone for a while this morning -she's been too tired and sick the last two days to talk- and she asked about you guys here at TCS, kind of out of the blue. (In the past, I have told her each time I've started a thread about her, and then told her how many responses were sending good thoughts, vibes, and prayers.)
She's always been so grateful for your responses here, there's something great in numbers like that! I believe she asked about you guys because she feels she needs a little boost - something strong and positive!
I guess it's no exaggeration to say that this month we will find out how long she has to live. If you could say a quick prayer or send some vibes to Linda in Texas, we would both be very, very grateful. I will pass on any responses to her.
Linda's my sister by birth, but the role she's played in my life has always been mom.
She had surgery in October and 15 lymph nodes were removed, 5 turned out to be cancerous. The cancer was cut out of her foot, and she was left with wound vacs, lymph drains, 18" of incision, and no heel. She now has an additional 8" incision in her leg from last week's surgery to put a graft on her heel. Through all of this, she has not been able to tolerate any pain killers except Tylenol!
There have been problems; one wound vac quit working and didn't even have enough power to give the warning beep, so she got an infection and a huge healing setback. On the second surgery, she was given glucose (although it's on her chart not to) and her blood sugar zoomed up and that has been another healing setback. She had to endure side effects from 3 insulins before finding a 4th that her body could tolerate.
Her healing has been very slow, but she is fighting and trying to keep a positive attitude.
Now we are at the crossroads. Next week, Linda will have a test done to check that there are no cancerous tumors in her body, in which case she will be a candidate for interferon, which is her best hope for beating this.
She also needs to be healed by the end of December so she can take the interferon, otherwise the window where the drug is effective will be closing and it will no longer be a treatment option.
I know this is all depressing and I thank you very much for having read this far. I talked to Linda on the phone for a while this morning -she's been too tired and sick the last two days to talk- and she asked about you guys here at TCS, kind of out of the blue. (In the past, I have told her each time I've started a thread about her, and then told her how many responses were sending good thoughts, vibes, and prayers.)
She's always been so grateful for your responses here, there's something great in numbers like that! I believe she asked about you guys because she feels she needs a little boost - something strong and positive!
I guess it's no exaggeration to say that this month we will find out how long she has to live. If you could say a quick prayer or send some vibes to Linda in Texas, we would both be very, very grateful. I will pass on any responses to her.
