Mom health update

[redbird]

I just got off the phone with my brother, and don't need to dash off to London. This is the current situation:

There are treatment options for the cancer, but they know it's not curable: the goal is to get my mother more time, and make her more comfortable for however long that is. Mom definitely wants to fight this.

The immediate problem is that there's fluid around my mother's lungs. The pulmonologist described the problem, and said there are two possibilities for dealing with that, and he will come back tomorrow and ask Mom for a decision. Given the hospital schedule and what the choices are, if the first doesn't work she can have them do the other.

The pulmonologist doesn't think the oncologist will want to start treatment until after the fluid is drained, but the cardiologist will also be back tomorrow.

Given all this, I'm not planning to travel before Saturday [three days from now], and Sunday or Monday might be better in terms of both having my and my brother's visits overlap, and giving Mom company for longer. Mark will call me again once they talk to the specialists, to fill me in and maybe discuss travel plans based on what they learn. and decide, tomorrow. In the short term, knowing we're not traveling immediately is helping the three of ust deal with logistics like what to make for dinner, and Adrian picking up a prescription. It also means Cattitude can try to decompress a little, and wait until tomorrow to do laundry.

The other open question is how long I will want to stay in London. One possibility is that the three of us are all there there for a few days, after which they fly back to Boston and I stay longer.

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

Oh this is good to hear. My heart goes out to you, as you know I'll be doing a version of this trip some day for my own parents and it's in my mind that it could be any time.

[azurelunatic]

Good luck; I hope she gets enough time to say her goodbyes and get a few last good times.

[anne]

I'm so glad you don't have to rush off immediately!

[otter]

I'm glad you have a bit more time to plan your travels. Sending hugs if you'd like them

[sabotabby]

*hugs* That's so hard.

[rafiwinters]

Just read your prior post to catch up. I'm sorry to hear this. Please know that I am thinking good thoughts for all of you, for whatever that's worth. Parental health issues are hard at the best of times and when they're so far away, even more so. Hugs.

[minoanmiss]

hugs you gently

sends your mom strength and the cancer weakness

[coth]

I'm so sorry to hear this. If there is anything we can do for you while you're in London, please let me know.

My mother died of pancreatic cancer. Please accept my sympathy for what you and your family are going through.

[liv]

This is so hard. I am glad you have a bit more time to plan travel, even though it's a terrible time to be travelling even with a bit more notice. If I can be at all useful as a known person in London let me know. I'm guessing it's possible for you to basically move in to your mother's home if you do decide to stay for weeks or months, but I do have a flat in NW London, with good transport links into the centre, if that turns out to be something that would help. I'm there half the time until mid-May, and a couple of weeks in June, but you could have the run of the place most of the time between 15 May and the end of August.

[redbird]

Thank you very much.

I don't know if I'll need/want to take you up on that, because a lot is up in the air. Among other things, some decisions are waiting on additional scans (more CT scans and an MRI), and apparently they don't do those on weekends or bank holidays. That's based on what my brother told me an hour ago, and he also said they'd told my mother they would take her up to pulmonology right away, six hours earlier.