a thousand words...

This picture was taken on September 1st. Since then my mom has lost all her strawberry blond hair, and has been on oxygen now for one month.
As many of you know my mom found a lump in her left breast last fall, and since breast cancer doesn't run in our family.. We didn't get it checked out, but then in February 2010, my mom woke up one morning and her whole left breast was red and inflamed.. NOT GOOD, ended up that the tumor had broke a blood vessel.. which in hindsight was good cause it made us take notice of it.. and it ended up being a grapefruit size cancerous tumor. So she had her left breast removed. After recovering from surgery my mom went to a Holistic Care Center in MPLS. For a couple weeks and did lots of different alternative treatments and did a raw greens diet. She went back to work in late April. My mom worked at a chiropractic office for a number of years and the chiropractor and his family, are LIKE family to us. So I filled in for my mom while she was out of commission.
I went on a trip overseas in June and with in 48 hours after I left my mom ended up having emergency back surgery, she had been experiencing pretty severe back pain.. but like me, my mom has a very HIGH pain tolerance, and for the most part bit the bullet and didn't say anything, because of her pain and side effects the chiropractor encouraged my mom to go and have an MRI done on Monday night June 7th, in the morning they went to the Doctor straight away and by that evening my mom was out of surgery.. what ended up happening was that a tumor had compound fractured the T10 vertebrae, so they replaced that vertebrae and fused the surrounding 5 to stabilize the area. (so now we have a similar scar right up the back, mines from my scoliosis surgeries in my late teens and early twenties.) She spent about a week in the hospital, Coming home around the 15th I believe I did not get back in to the country until June 19th. (Needless to say it was EXTREMELY rough being totally gone during all of this) They also found legions in her lungs in the X-Rays and MRI.
She found an Oncologist and Radiologist to work with in early July, but her back needed to heal for a full 6 weeks before the Back Surgeon would give the go ahead for any treatments. Once the go ahead was given, the first impression was to Start with Radiation cause it would be less toxic for my mom's liver. (My mom has PBC, which is a liver disease that is incurable, she has been keeping it under tabs for 10 years now) So the 2nd week in August my mom did Radiation every day for five days, directed mostly to her back bones. On August 21st My mom, Hayden and I went to the ER, she was having a very hard time breathing. She ended up being admitted and staying for 2 nights, they did a procedure called a thorocyntisis.. where they take the fluid off her lungs, they picked the worse of the two, which was her Right Lung. During her stay it was also decided that she needed to start Chemotherapy, regardless of her liver disease because of the cancer rapidly spreading through out her lungs, within this week we found out the fluid itself in cancerous too.
On August 25, 2010 my mom started her first round of Chemo, which is once a week for three weeks with one week off, then on to round 2.. which started today. between August 22nd and September 15th my mom had her Right lung Drained 3 times and her left Lung drained once. Today we had the Right Lung drained again for the 4th time, but it was 2 weeks between draining to that was an IMPROVEMENT.
Feeling like the Summer disappeared between working at the chiropractor the Salon and being with my mom and going to dr appts. About 2 weeks ago, I majorly cut back my hours at the salon, I am only there now for up to 8 hours a week, only going in on Thursday and Friday evenings, this way I am able to bring Hayden to and from school and be home with my mom first and FOREMOST taking care of her.
My mom needs to have someone around basically all the time. If I have to run an errand longer then about an hour and a half we both would rather have someone else be here for her if she needs anything.
Last week the Radiation Dr said that the cancer was too far advanced for him to be able to help.. so that was not news we wanted to hear, but it is good to know. Met with the Oncologist today and added a new chemo drug for this next cycle and we will know more in 30 days, after the last cycle the count went down 6 numbers.. from like 134 to 127 or something.

We have Hope, and we see the reality of the situation all at the same time. If you can help out by spending time with my mom it would be much appreciated by both of us, please feel free to email me or find me on Facebook. Hugs, cards.. everything is great. Encouragement. Prayers for restful sleep for all, and quality time spent, less pain and Healing would also be great.

Thank you everyone who has helped and who will help. My mom and I know some of the most truly care giving people. And have some of the best friendships. Thank YOU!

~Natalie

And to anyone I haven't talked to or who has felt left out in anyway.. and am truly sorry but my mind has been completely overwhelmed with the everyday, and to tell you the truth it is not the easiest thing to just bring up or talk about. Thx for understanding!