Lu from Brazil
Regular
Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 10
Location: Brazil
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 Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 2:45 pm Post subject: My mum's story here in Brazil |
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From my point of view, how it happened:
Mum has a great health. She doesn't exercise much, as me and my dad always tell her to, but she's is in great shape for her 54 years of body-age. She's not tall, she looks like a baby-doll, so pretty... She has a ironic sense of humor, but never complains about things, she'd rather worry whether people around her are feeling alright and doing whatever she can to help out. As a boss at work, she's really a big mother for everyone else.
So, we started worrying a lot when in mid november she started feeling real sick. She had strong headaches that wouldn't go away, and also felt nausea and started vomiting often. Well, we live in a tropical country, mind you: the doctor ruled out dengue fever (yes, it still happens in Rio de Janeiro) and said it was probably a virus or a flu. She had shots of anti-nausea medicine and the next morning she woke up talking non-sense. Again, doc said no big deal, it's the meds, can happen etc.
So she was at home like this for 2 weeks! Nausea got better, but headaches were massive, and she had no energy, not even to decide if she'd have orange or lime juice for lunch. She slept most of the day.
At this point, I have to thank my grandma and my aunt, who spent lots of time with her, insisting with the doctor that something was really wrong. Searching for sinusitis, she had had an partial-head scan. My aunt went to the docs office and made him call the lab to find about the results. Finally, the shock: it showed the edge of a tumor (Dec 6th)
Big run to hospital! They called me the next morning to come and see her: I only knew it from my mum's mouth... A 8 cm tumor on her frontal lobe and she needs surgery.
So, my dad was in a conference in the other side of the world; my sister in vacation trip; my brother in France studying. Oh God did I feel helpless! And we were all nervous, I said we needed a second opinion, my grandma was mortified, like I was questioning her good judgement...
Finally, we could wait for my father to arrive, and on Dec 10th she had successful surgery to remove 90% of the tumor. 5 days of intensive care unit, another week recovering, she came home Dec 22nd. She's doing great. She has no explicit loss of motion or speech, just feels really tired and emotional.
So, it was great receiveing a lot of love from friends... we still feel unsure about the future... I slowly came to realize what C means... we never think it can happen to our family, hum?  for some time, I convinced myself that only surgery would do the trick - if it was that easy... Denyal made me shut off from people, I had trouble expressing myself, even the silliest thing. Looking at exams and searching the web can be terrifying. I was glad that a friend neurosurgeon told EVERYTHING that he could see from the exams to my dad at 2am when he got at the hospital, exhausted from a 40h trip from Bali. It prepared him to ask all the right questions to mum's surgeon, and we all agreed it was best to prioritize her well-being and brain functioning.
At the same time, i feel grateful it is a not-so-tough-one: diagnosis after surgery confirmed a oligodendroglioma gr.3, we're having the genetics done. We even have close ones going through the same type of brain tumour, even bigger or worse located ones. Oh boy it's frightening, but i get hope from praying, from lots of info and lots of love from friends and this forum here - some amazing people around here make you inspired to face anything that comes along.
I really hope she will be around to see her grand-children...
I feel like it has made her think a lot about life. We haven't had much talk about it, but my guess is that we will have.
Treatment starts in January. Looking forward to it (not my mum though  ). We still have lots of questions about that as well... that's something that we always fear here in the 3rd world: is this really the best treatment choice??? but everything at its time.
Thanks everybody for being here and sharing
May God fill your hearts with joy
Luciana
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2007 The big Scare
Nov 24 Mum had headaches
Dec 6 MRI shows mass; commited
Dec 10 Surgery - 90% removal
Dec 19 diagnosed Oligodendroglioma gr.3
Last edited by Lu from Brazil on Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Lu from Brazil
Regular
Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 10
Location: Brazil
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| Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 2:58 pm Post subject: AH! Big lesson! |
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A big lesson we learned: take care of yourself so you can care for others!!
Grandma had a fall in the hospital when staying with mum, and has fractured a vertebrae - ouch! And didn't stay home to rest!!!!!! She's suffering some complications now... Great lesson for who cares a little too much (is it possible?) about others! She missed the triumph day (mum getting out of hospital) and had to go have exams during Christmas lunch - boy she was pissed!
Strong one, this grandma, she lost a 21y-old son to a misdiagnosed hepatitis. So she's really nervous about mum and so. My aunt also had breast cancer last year. Grandma herself has a neurinoma in her ear duct 
A lot in her plate! Tough old lady, adorably stubborn and loving... speaks her mind no matter what. Oh boy...  love her a lot, I think I'm becoming just like her...
_________________
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2007 The big Scare
Nov 24 Mum had headaches
Dec 6 MRI shows mass; commited
Dec 10 Surgery - 90% removal
Dec 19 diagnosed Oligodendroglioma gr.3 |
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