You are welcome. I'm listening and relating to every single word you wrote. BTDT several times. My Mom was misdiagnosed and misled twice. Lord Daniel has a rare illness, true, but he had to be almost dead before he received the treatment he needs. My MIL had to change Drs before she was properly diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer.

I've never mentioned my own story here because it was so traumatic. Took me out of my life for almost 3 years. Thank you UCSF! They saved both me and Lord Daniel.

This is great news indeed. And a renewed hope. There is not much better news to be had. Please keep us informed.

Thank God she's out of pain and now I'll send prayers up to have her medical team get her fully recovered. You must be so tired, I feel for you. I've gone through experiences like yours.

Sending good thoughts her way (and your and your family's way, too).

So glad to hear she has pain meds that are working now. I hope you find out soon what the real problem is. I will keep your family in my prayers. It is so hard on a person to go through an illness like this - the person who is sick and the caregivers too. For the caregivers, try to get as much rest as you can and from time to time, remove yourself from the situation. Take a little time to go eat, get outside, just to have a little time to yourself. You need that to stay strong, both physically and emotionally. You will all do your MIL more good that way.

tina

I wish all of you the best of luck in all this.

Good thoughts and prayers for all of you. Good for you to be persistent enough to get a new doc. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes is really important. Hang in there.

Thank you everyone for your words and thoughts.

golddust: This is Mom's second bout with thyroid cancer. We suspect they screwed up the first round (doc says he removed the whole thyroid but scans indicate there was still some there) AND they did not do proper follow-up tests. They discharged her as 'cancer free" less than a month before she discovered a (3 cm!) lump on her neck.

She went to the pain clinic at USCF yesterday but they are not going to change much until after the other issues are cleared up.

tina: I know this but it's very, very hard to get Hubby to see this. He thinks he has to be there all the time and "in charge" of everything. True, he's the one with extensive medical background (ABD in pharmacology and a Chiropractor) but even so. I just have to be patient and as supportive as I can. Every once in a while I am able to get him away but it's rare.

There are also lots of other complications that make this even more difficult. But you guys don't need the whole sob story.

I'll update when I know anything.

Appeals to the Powers That Be on behalf of you and yours, and many blessings to compassionate and competent pain management doctors. (Mine are literally lifesavers.) Cracking jokes is always a good thing. Here's hoping that a good strong round of antibiotics does the trick.

My mom has medullary thyroid cancer (long story) so I do worry quite a bit about this sort of thing too. *hug*

If you need to unload the whole sob story, though, we're here to listen. You can even tell us you don't want a single word of advice, you just need to vent.

I just got back from the hospital. Arrived just as Mom's oncologist was wrapping up her visit. She seemed like a great person with lots of energy and go get 'em attitude. She's set to see an infectious diseases doctor, a GI doctor (for the stomach tube) and a few others for good measure. All tests (I think) are ordered). They have already started her on antibiotics as the initial results of her blood tests show an elevated white blood cell count.

She's not thrilled to be in the hospital and is expecting Hubby to stay there all night. No jokes today. She's back to bouncing between "poor me" and being incredibly cranky. When I left he said he was going to get her settled, make sure she has her anti-anxiety pain med and head home. Let's hope so. He needs the rest desperately and his family needs him home.

Doctor says she'll be there 4-5 days, Mom says 3.

Oh yeah - did I mention my parents arrive late Tuesday for a two-week visit and the house is nowhere near ready for them?

So Hubby did indeed make it home (though late). We spent a good deal of yesterday cleaning and organizing but we still have a lot to do. With the chaos our life has been for the past several months cleaning (other than the basics) has been a very low priority.

CT scan revealed that the mass in her shoulder is non-homogenous, there is definitely infection and the other parts could be abscess, live tumor and/or dead tumor cells. Plan is to do a CT-guided needle biopsy of all the different masses today. She should also get her stomach tube.

The battles raging in her body have taken a toll on her in many ways. Probably the most difficult one right now is that she is easily confused and agitated and has no short-term memory. We have to explain to her multiple times where she is and why she's there and what is happening. They put her on oxygen last night (she has developed apnea and shallow breathing due in large part to the meds) and you could see it was really helping her but she kept wanting to take the cannula off.

Hubby is at the hospital now hoping to catch up with the oncologist. I suspect he's going to be gone all day. We're still nowhere near ready. Adding to the stress, we came home some time after 11 pm (having spent the evening at the hospital) to discover the newly-vacuumed living room full of garbage and three very dirty and guily chihuahuas. My fault - I had left the (nearly full) garbage can where they could get at it. With a ham bone and other tasties in there it was just too tempting. So we spent our evening scrubbing floors and puppies. At least we hadn't shampooed the carpet yet.

You have my prayers

It's cancer. It's growing fast. She has infections of some sort, too but there's definitely cancer. For some reason they still want to do external radiation, even though she's terminal. I'm going to need to talk to Hubby about this as if I were in her situation there's no way I'd want that. It's just going to cause more pain and hurt. I don't get it.

House still not ready. Parents arrive in less than 5 hours. I've been getting about 5 hours of sleep / night the past several days. Hubby has been getting less.

They might discharge her from the hospital tomorrow, which means Hubby won't be around.

I hate this.

((((prisbjar))))

Hang in there...I know you're strong. Sending good sleep juju your way this week.

pbrisjar- I am so sorry to hear about your MIL. She is very lucky to have you and your DH to help her and you guys have been giving it your all.

I'm sure your parents are understanding of the situation right now. Maybe you guys can get at least one good night of sleep- it is so hard to function long term on minimal sleep.

Try to get some rest and tomorrow is a new day! Enjoy your visit with your parents and sending best thoughts your way....

I'm sorry. I went through something similar with my mother, and I remember how exhausting it was.

The radiation might be to make her more comfortable. I don't believe the radiation itself is painful.

I believe that's the theory, but I just don't see it happening. The side effects they're forecasting for her already weakened system (burns, even more diffuculty swallowing, bone destruction when her neck bones are already virtually non-existant, etc.) just don't convince me.

Boy I know what you are going through. My hubby passed from cancer, it'll be 2 yrs. this Nov. and they started him on chemo 10 days before he died. I so wish that had never been done as they had to transport him for chemo. and it didn't do any good in the long run and it was just plain hard on him. He went to hosp. with what was thought to be pneumonia and it just wasn't getting any better so they did another x-ray and found they bit of cancer hiding behind the pneumonia in the lung. Not that 3 wks. would have given him more time, who knows. I think making the patient comfortable is so very important. I can recall how exhausted I was being up there every day once or twice and he didn't feel much like talk as he just didn't feel well. Cancer is just an awful disease!
Many thoughts and prayers go out to you and yours, you will find the strength to go on each day. Just put one foot in front of the other. Honestly your parents aren't coming to inspect your house and would want you visiting with and doing all you can do for your MIL, if it were them they would want you near by too. Blessings and prayers to each of you and especially your MIL. Try to take care of YOU too.