Confections For Cats

Monday  MOM He had MRI. As soon as we get  results or talk to Dr, I will call 2-24-14 Mat said to tell you sorry he’s feeling crappy. Will talk to you when he can. 2-24-14                                                                                    He’s been in a lot of pain today. 2-24-14                                                                                  JOSEPH     Biopsy yet? 2-25-14 MOM No. Dr just here, said test showing originating from liver or pancreas, negative, whi...

Mathew’s Dad, Stepmom, and I had distinctive note taking styles. Here are the contents of one page in the notebook. This represents the questions we had and information the Doctor was giving us. Questions When biopsy? How biopsy? More scans? Lower abdomen Info from Doctor tumor markers 6 x 5 inches (the size of the tumor).   NOTE: It gets larger before chemo is started. Where it comes from ????  Right kidney Right peritoneum Pressing on bile duct Pressing on hepatic artery ?? liver may be in two places Monday Dr. John Moffitt At the same time, Mathew was making notes in his journal.

TIP One of Mathew’s nurses suggested we get a notebook that we keep with Mathew/in his room. So notes can be taken, questions added for asking the doctor and any other observations or instructions. This was important since the people who took turns staying with Mathew changed during the day. The notebook is an invaluable tip. One of the ways we utilized this immediately was to list any questions we parents had. Mathew didn’t want us to ask the doctors anything until he was through talking to them. He was 24 at the time and an intelligent adult, and it was his decision, but as a Mom, it was also difficult to stay quiet that long!  Now is a good time to explain that Mathew was only a few months (maybe) from death at the time of his hospital admission. The tumor itself, (as was explained to us later at Moffitt), excreted toxins. Mathew suffered from hepatic buildup, which also caused his liver to be toxic, which caused Mathew to suffer from hallucinations and menta...

TEXTS From A Dear Friend ME: At the hospital. They are admitting Mat. We thought he was having liver problems. So they did a cat scan and he has a large mass in his abdomen pressing against his organs. going to biopsy. All I  can do is cry Sent Feb 22 2014                                                     KRISTIN That’s terrible Johanna. I’m so sorry to hear that. Did he ever have his appendix removed? I will praying for y’all. Keep me posted. Are you in dade city or shills hospital? Received Feb 22

This is something I will mention often. It is important to know as a patient and/or a caregiver the ways you can shorten the wait, crunch the timeline, as I call it. I believe several ways I managed to shorten the wait or made decisions that resulted in a shorter wait is the reason Mathew survived for eleven months. Especially since the doctors at Moffitt were concerned, he may not survive until his first chemo. Of course, I didn’t know that until later. If I hadn’t taken Mathew into the walk-in clinic that day,  I don't know if his blood work would have raised any alarms before Monday morning.  But it did get him admitted sooner. Even if it had been Monday, rather than the Wednesday appointment, he would have been admitted soon anyway because his condition deteriorated quickly. At the Zephyrhills hospital, at that time, biopsies are only done on Tuesdays. That’s when the Interventional Radiologist is there. At the time I was very anxious that we had to wait and now in r...

This is the Final Report results of the scan they did on his admission to the ER. ******* Please note that my explanations of things like bilirubin are from a non-professional point of view. If there is a problem you are researching for yourself or a loved one, please do more research and consult your doctor. They found a 5 x 5-inch mass causing havoc in my son's body. Findings: There is a large low-density mass that is centered in the mesentery this extends into the right lobe of the liver as well as the left lobe of the liver and extends and compresses the right kidney and extends into the retroperitoneal and prevertebral soft tissues this mass measures up to 12.5 cm in the AP diameter and 11.7 cm in the craniocaudal dimension. This mass is causing significant intrahepatic delayed ductal dilation. The pancreas appears to be displaced inferiorly. The IVC is compressed.   (Of course, we didn’t understand this at the time, but this fact will be Mathew’s nem...