New Caregiver

Lisa, just a quick welcome. I have been gone as my husband had his bladder removed and that pretty much took up most of my time. We are home now and he is doing great.

He had chemo before surgery and now has been declared cancer free. adjustments to a new way of life are being made one day at a time and he's doing well with that.

I have not had to stay home with him 24/7. I've gone out to Curves for exercise, to my church for prayer, to the groc store for groc. He got out of the hospital on Friday and we were home Monday afternoon and it is a 800 mile drive.

What do I contribute this too! First of the willingness to ask every one we knew to pray and keep praying and to be open to those prayers, 2nd attitude on both of our parts, a positive attitude is great. He got his from his brother and I got mine from this forum and being able to vent here and by phone calls realizing what I felt were just feelings and not facts was a great help.

So keep coming and posting and hopefully you Mom will do the same and learning as much as you can from people who have gone before. Relizing everyone is different but in some ways very much the same.

God Bless you and yours
pat(justme)

Lisa -- I want to add my welcome and to respond to something you posted.
I, too, hope that your mother will join us on the forum. The forum is being
a wonderful source of information and support for me and many other
"warriers" and caregivers. I am glad you are here; I hope your mother will
join us, too -- warmly -- Susan (mssmr)

Lisa i worked very temporarily for an Oncologist at a major university and this was at a time when the big "C" was almost a death sentence,.....there is so much more knowledge out there now.....still not enough but progress certainly being made. By the way he was a horrible person...had the personality of a werewolf. I used to work at the University between acting jobs as i always loved medicine...i transfered over to a happier Pediatrics!!
Pat

They're going to do the PET scan after she does her first 3 months of chemo. She's already had 2 treatments (she's getting them once a week). I'm going to ask her doctor on Monday if they can do it sooner.

Lisa,
Sometimes the ones who work in the fields of cancer are the worst to deal with.
But she has to know this is not a death sentence, there is much hope for her. She doesn't even know if it is metastic for sure as of yet. The chemo will do its job, then if the all clear is given she can have removal..I can't express enough that the more experience the Doctor has the better off you are, 2nd opinions are so important..she is only 57 and has lots of living to do, when will you get the pet scan results? Ginger

I tried looking up what turb meant and I guess I found something different then what you all are describing. Anyway, she did have that done, she was in and out of the hospital the same day. She's putting a LOT of weight on what the heart surgeon she worked for told her about his mother. I'm trying to be optimistic. I told her about this site and I'm hoping she'll go on here because I think it will help lift her spirits. She says she's being realistic about what might happen to her, which is fine but I think she still kind of sees it as a death sentence. When she worked in oncology years ago, cancer sort of was a death sentence. I think she's still got all that in her mind.