Recall

This blog is for no one in particular. I just need to get this stuff out
and keep a record of it somewhere, and I figured people who don't
know the entire story might be spared me having
to tell it later.

Think about all the people in the world, every single person who has
or might have cancer, and all the different types of cancers there
are out there.

Now imagine that, out of the millions of types of cancers that are
out there, there is one category of cancers called sarcoma,
which is a set of cancers that consists of 7 types within.

I guess you could compare it to one company out of the millions
of companies in the world, and this one company has 7 employees.
Or something.

These 7 types of sarcomas all have a certain characteristic
in people they cling to, such as:

one type pops up only in kids,
one pops up only within the fat cells,
one pops up only in the bones,
one pops up only in the soft tissues, etc.

You get the point. There are only 7, so these sarcomas are very rare.

Now imagine that one of the 7 sarcomas, the one that pops up in the
soft tissues, is divided into its own set of categories, around
15 of them. These 15 categories make up only 7% of the entire
world of cancers. Among these 15 categories there is one that is
only common in 1% of the 7%. It is known as leiomyosarcoma.
And only 4 out of every million people acquires it.

My mother has had leiomysarcoma for the past 9 years. Her
first tumor popped up when I was only 20, my sister was 16,
and my brother was 11. This one was on her
vena cava vein, the one that goes through your entire body
and delivers all its nutrients to the appropriate places, including
the stomach. Part of this vein in her stomach had the tumor
on it and had to be removed and replaced with a piece of artificial
vein, along with one of her kidneys removed.

The next year she had a tumor on her left arm, the entire humerus
bone, to be exact. She and my dad spent Halloween through the
first week in December at MD Anderson in Houston getting it
removed and a steel rod put in its place. My siblings and I had
to join them in her hospital room for Thanksgiving that year.
I hate doctors. She almost died.

The next year the doctors found nothing, luckily, but the year
after that they found spots on her lungs. Like, 13 spots. From
the very beginning, the doctors only expected her to live, at the
most, 5 years. But, she is strong, and for the spots on her
lungs she decided to go with chemo. Again, she almost died
because of the effect the chemo had on her.

So the spots went away, and we thought all was well. Until
2 years ago. She started to have a nagging pain in her tail bone.
She went to the doctor and found out, sure enough, it was the
same cancer, back on her sacrum (tail bone) this time. She
had to quit her job, because she could no longer sit without
pain, and eventually she had to start wearing pain patches
that she changes out every 3 days. They emit a constant
stream of morphine throughout her body. Also, she has
pain pills, which she tries not to take much of, because she
doesn't want to become addicted. She has lost all use of her
1/2 functionality, mostly because the tumor is so large, and
it sits right on her sciatic nerve. So she has to use a daily little
catheter the size of a straw, and do enemas to go. Sorry if this
is grossing you out.

Well, last year the doctors informed us that the cancer had
spread throughout her body, including into her intestines, her
lungs (again), her stomach (again), and onto her rib cage on
both sides. She has gone from being a healthy 138
pound woman to now, I'm not really sure because she won't
tell me, around 80 pounds. She is able to get around, but she
doesn't do much in a given day. She mostly does laundry for
my dad, and cooks occasionally.

Since we have moved to Omaha, my parents don't call much.
It's natural, it's happened before when I moved away. I got a
call from my dad last night, who doesn't typically call me out
of the blue, and he told me that she is not doing well.

Now, it has to be pretty bad because, for one thing, he said
it is and he never admits things like that, and for another
he said that the cancer has really "taken a toll on her."
And he said that part 3 times. So, needless to say,
I'm going to Amarillo as much as I can between now and
the end of time.


Sorry if this was too long. It helped to get it out, actually.