Day 9

1:05pm

Mom is on her last bag of fluids.  We've been here on "Day 9" as the nurses call it, since 8 this morning.

We had to see the doctor (rather the colleague of mom's oncologist whom we never seem to see) this morning before mom began her long day of treatment.  Her blood pressure was good, but she lost 7 pounds since last week.

The doctor is encouraging her to try to eat more...especially high caloric and high protein foods.  We are going to stop by the store and get some yogurt.  Mom has been eating peanut butter and eggs, continuing with the ensure and gatorade.  She has lost all sense of taste.  The doctor said she is doing good with her fluids though and to keep it up as hydration is key to avoiding side effects caused by her treatment.

After seeing her doctor I told mom to go ahead as I wanted to talk to the doctor alone.  As stated previously, the doctor wasn't mom's oncologist...it was a colleague of his whom we have seen twice now.

Last week during mom's second day of treatment, her oncologist came to see mom.  He sat down.  I introduced myself.  He looked at me but that was the only acknowledgement I received.

He told mom that he hoped that it will work, blah, blah and blah.  Then he proceeded to give her a lecture on how important it was to ensure she makes her payments.  That they are a small business and they do afterall, provide the medicine that will hopefully help her heal.  I was totally dumbfounded.  Did I just hear him correctly??  Was he just trying to feed a guilt trip to my mom and making sure he gets paid??  Really??  This is her second day of treatment and she just found out she has cancer you dumbass.

Mom likes her doctor so I didn't make a scene.  What I should have done was pulled him aside and I didn't.  Why didn't I?  I feel terrible about that.

So this morning when we saw his colleague, I told her what happened.  Her mouth just dropped open.  I told her that I thought that was the most inappropriate bedside manner I had ever seen from a doctor and that his role is to be a caregiver to his patients...not talk about payments. We know what our financial obligation is and already spoke to the billing department (as is procedure on your first day of treatment).  I told her that if he wants to discuss anything about payments, then he can discuss it with me.  Mom doesn't need the added stress on top of what she already has. I also told her how caring and thoughtful I felt she has been with my mom but felt otherwise about him.  I said I may be reading him wrong, but he doesn't seem like the caring type to me.  You can do what you want with this information, I just thought someone should know.  Poor thing kept apologizing and of course she couldn't say anything detrimental to me but her eyes told me everything and I knew she totally agreed with me.

If I ever catch him saying any kind of crap to my mom like that again, he will have me to contend with.  I'm just so frustrated with myself for not doing that in the first place!

Later, mom asked me why I wanted to speak to her alone, "Did you want to see how long I have to live?".  I looked at her incredulously and said, "No.  I just had questions about your doctor."  I know mom won't read this blog, so I know she won't find out.  But even if she does, I'm sure it won't be too big of a deal for her.  I just want her to focus on herself and getting better and that's it.

Mom won't have chemo again until the week of February 18th.  But she will have radiation every day.  I just hope that this will give her the break she needs to get a little of her appetite back and a little energy.

Mom seems lethargic most of the time....doesn't want to or can't do much of anything.  The doctor encouraged her to push herself to do a little more physical activity as it is important to keep the muscles active as the treatments eat away muscle...hence the importance of having to eat a lot of protein.

4:08pm

I'm home now.  Cooked mom scrambled eggs, washed her dishes and hung out for awhile with her.  She ate some pudding and is continuing to drink alot of liquids.

As stated earlier, she doesn't have any chemo for the next 3 wks, only daily radiation.  They told her, however, that if the side effects were becoming too much, for her to come in so that they can give her liquids...which could contain steroids for nausea and vitamins and minerals.  Today they gave her some potassium with her treatment as it was a little low because of the chemo.  Since she has to have daily radiation and the  building is right next door, it wouldn't be an inconvenience for her.  Some patients resist doing this, and find themselves coming in to get hydrated and feel much better for it.  So I told mom NOT to be stubborn and make sure she does this if she feels she needs to.

I think she is emotionally a little better knowing she has a break from chemo for 3 weeks.  Maybe she will be able to eat a little more going forward.  

My apologies if my thoughts seem scattered.  I'm trying to write down as my thoughts come to me and unfortunately, may seem like I am jumping around.

I'm so thankful that the nurses there are so nice and thoughtful.  Aside from mom's oncologist, I am impressed with how mom is being treated at the cancer and radiology centers.

Mom will be driving herself to radiation this week.  But I did tell her that if she sees the weather and doesn't want to drive due to snow, to let us know.  I don't want her stressing out over something like that (and she would).