Well, thanks for understanding my little detour last week. God is faithful and has filled my broken heart with peace, comfort, love and joy. I am grateful for his loving care.
So, the next step for Tami was to see an Oncologist. Her first appointment was with an Oncologist in Anaheim, as the one she was assigned to was out of town. Her parents went to the appointment with her. The Oncologist discussed her percentage of survival with chemotherapy and without it. She also discussed the percentage of recurrence after the chemotherapy treatment. Because the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes and the tumor broke through the muscle wall, she was Stage III T4. In order to understand what this meant, off to the internet we went to look it up. This became a habitual practice for us. Stage III T4 means that the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes and broken through the muscle wall into the abdominal cavity. No one appeared to be too concerned with the fact that the tumor broke through the muscle wall in the early diagnosis and treatment stages.
The Oncologist recommended the standard first line of treatment for Colon Cancer. It is called Folfox and consists of 5-FU, Leucovorin, and Oxalipatin. This particular treatment required that Tami have a port-a-cath placed under her skin as she would be required to wear a chemo pump at home for 3 days. She was so nervous about starting chemotherapy and the side effects she could experience, yet she once again conquered her fear and anxiety. It was hard to watch the nurse try to get the needle into the port, as it caused Tami a lot of pain. Once the IV was hooked up, it was about a 4 to 5 hour day. She was always very tired after her infusions. The infusion nurses go over with you the possible side effects you can get from these medications, but they only go over the most common, not the least common. We quickly found out that Tami was prone to the uncommon side effects.
She made it through 9 of 12 rounds of this chemo cocktail (about 5 months of treatment). The side effects had gotten to be so bad and hard to live with. She experienced severe diarrhea, nausea, loss of appetite, weight loss, tingling in her extremities, mouth sores, “chemo brain”, and toward the 9th round, irregular heartbeat. She kept a very detailed thorough list of her side effects by day, time and what she took or did, to help with that particular side effect. Every doctor appointment, we would take the list with us so she could discuss it with her Oncologist. It was rather frustrating as all the doctor would say was, “typical people don’t respond that way”. Obviously, Tami was not your typical patient on chemotherapy, yet this doctor refused to think outside of the box or offer any kind of relief from the side effects.
Tami would listen to relaxation CDs during the infusion. She would read through her devotional books. She would work on her journals and grateful lists. She tried to make the best of a horrible experience for her. I tried to go as many times as I could to make sure the right doses of pre-meds were given, as well as the right doses of the chemo drugs. Mistakes can be, and were, made. She was always so grateful to have someone (me, her parents, her sister, her daughter) with her to help her advocate and also remember things she is told.
Tami was the exception to every rule when it came to treatment and in life in general. I have never known someone who was as resilient, courageous and hopeful as Tami in the face of danger and intolerable pain and suffering. She was very fortuneate to have so many people at her side and to advocate for her when things became confusing. We all miss her but would not ask her to endure one more day of suffering.
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