A Timeline...
Fair warning--depressing (and possibly too much) information ahead. Read through the cut at your own risk.
March 21, evening. I get a phone call from my mom. It goes well enough at the start, saying hello and all that stuff. Then I ask her how she is, and get a bombshell. She had gone to the doctor to get something for the pneumonia she'd been suffering with...and he told her that she didn't have pneumonia. He sent her for some chest x-rays, and there were masses over her lungs. The GP couldn't (legally?) make a diagnosis, but said that it looked like cancer to her, and set up an appointment with a lung specialist.
March 24. I call up mom to get an update. Evidently, the lung specialist took a biopsy, and pretty much nothing else Biopsy results due later in the week, and an appointment has been scheduled with an oncologist.
March 31. Biopsy results are in, as well as the results of an MRI and PET scan. She's got lung cancer, and it's already spread pretty well through her body. Multiple masses on her lungs, and it's gotten to her liver, spleen, and bones. She's given some pain medication, but opts to hold off on chemo for now--she's feeling good with the pain medicine (her back, apparently related to this, had been in pain for a good six months to a year). Because the cancer has reached her bones, the only thing that radiation treatment would do is hold off the end--it's incurable already. She's got her faith that's keeping her strong, and her family is planning on coming up to see her too. So that's something, at least.
A couple weeks pass, allowing everyone to come to grips with the situation. We're all working on the idea that the end is going to be about six months away, maybe a little less if things progress quickly. Enough time for everyone to visit in shifts, say goodbye, that sort of thing. Suz and I go on our planned trip to Florida.
Apr 20, late night. We got back from Florida, throw on a couple shows from the DVR to try to bring it down under 90% full. While watching (finally) the BSG finale, I get a call from my sister. Apparently over the weekend, my mom had gone in to a doctor for treatment of a yeast infection, and while in the process of checking that out, they discovered that she was no longer producing any urine--she's in renal failure.
April 21, late night. Having fought through for a day or so, and able to think about the questions I need to ask, I had called my sister earlier in the day--she wasn't home. She called me back around midnight last night, and I was able to get my questions in. Apparently mom, probably due to the fact that she has no insurance and doesn't want to saddle people with more bills, isn't planning on going on dialysis. The doctors have said that she could last as long as 4-5 weeks, but if things move as quickly as they look like they have been, it's likely going to be more like 4-5 days.
So here I am at work, waiting for the employee service center to open up so I can put in a request for medical leave. I really want to bring the kids up there so she can say goodbye to them--I'm sure Xander wouldn't really understand, and Ana only just--when I originally told her a while back she got upset, but got over it quickly--but I'm sure my mom would love to see them one last time. But it's the middle of the school year, and I wouldn't want Anastasia to have to repeat Kindergarten because we take her out of school for two weeks or more in the middle of the fourth quarter of the year. So now I don't know what I'm going to do.
March 21, evening. I get a phone call from my mom. It goes well enough at the start, saying hello and all that stuff. Then I ask her how she is, and get a bombshell. She had gone to the doctor to get something for the pneumonia she'd been suffering with...and he told her that she didn't have pneumonia. He sent her for some chest x-rays, and there were masses over her lungs. The GP couldn't (legally?) make a diagnosis, but said that it looked like cancer to her, and set up an appointment with a lung specialist.
March 24. I call up mom to get an update. Evidently, the lung specialist took a biopsy, and pretty much nothing else Biopsy results due later in the week, and an appointment has been scheduled with an oncologist.
March 31. Biopsy results are in, as well as the results of an MRI and PET scan. She's got lung cancer, and it's already spread pretty well through her body. Multiple masses on her lungs, and it's gotten to her liver, spleen, and bones. She's given some pain medication, but opts to hold off on chemo for now--she's feeling good with the pain medicine (her back, apparently related to this, had been in pain for a good six months to a year). Because the cancer has reached her bones, the only thing that radiation treatment would do is hold off the end--it's incurable already. She's got her faith that's keeping her strong, and her family is planning on coming up to see her too. So that's something, at least.
A couple weeks pass, allowing everyone to come to grips with the situation. We're all working on the idea that the end is going to be about six months away, maybe a little less if things progress quickly. Enough time for everyone to visit in shifts, say goodbye, that sort of thing. Suz and I go on our planned trip to Florida.
Apr 20, late night. We got back from Florida, throw on a couple shows from the DVR to try to bring it down under 90% full. While watching (finally) the BSG finale, I get a call from my sister. Apparently over the weekend, my mom had gone in to a doctor for treatment of a yeast infection, and while in the process of checking that out, they discovered that she was no longer producing any urine--she's in renal failure.
April 21, late night. Having fought through for a day or so, and able to think about the questions I need to ask, I had called my sister earlier in the day--she wasn't home. She called me back around midnight last night, and I was able to get my questions in. Apparently mom, probably due to the fact that she has no insurance and doesn't want to saddle people with more bills, isn't planning on going on dialysis. The doctors have said that she could last as long as 4-5 weeks, but if things move as quickly as they look like they have been, it's likely going to be more like 4-5 days.
So here I am at work, waiting for the employee service center to open up so I can put in a request for medical leave. I really want to bring the kids up there so she can say goodbye to them--I'm sure Xander wouldn't really understand, and Ana only just--when I originally told her a while back she got upset, but got over it quickly--but I'm sure my mom would love to see them one last time. But it's the middle of the school year, and I wouldn't want Anastasia to have to repeat Kindergarten because we take her out of school for two weeks or more in the middle of the fourth quarter of the year. So now I don't know what I'm going to do.