daughter

Let’s see if I can answer all in one fell swoop…

Her symptoms presented initially as intense pain in the gut, wrapping around the back. That began around this time last year.
Problems building with appetite and the digestion of food – at first discomfort, the whole process became a challenge. Much mimics IBS.
She has not at any time been jaundiced.
Chemo has been hard on her, some could not be tolerated and she has missed many sessions to instead have transfusions or rehydration. She has lost something like 30 pounds.

I have asked about the liver and status…Dad said the Doctor was instead discussing the condition of gallbladder, but not in the negative.

If I ask too many questions…I’m asking too many questions. That’s the only delicate way I can explain how much I can contribute to her situation. Mine is to support and listen, not critique or over-emphasize. (Sooo, that’s why I’m here. Trying to put the pieces together.)

The Oncologist my mother is seeing belongs to a well-respected cancer group in South Florida, and from all I’ve been told is networked around the globe…so he has the sources at his disposal for whatever his own knowledge does not provide him.
All that huff aside, I’d still go for a second opinion…but I would have done that a year ago.
My parents are not willing to take another look at this, believing him to be solid in his opinion. There is nothing I can say to persuade them to consider otherwise. (This is not a pleasant position for me to take. And I am in another state.)

It isn’t that I’ve dismissed his qualifications, having had another family member treated successfully by him, but that after almost a year of guessing or assuming — or however it is they came to believe this is one type, it is now thought to be something else.
Even that, I can understand, because they can’t get IN there to look at it without harming her…but I feel as though her earlier CT scans (and whatever else to categorise) over-looked important clues.

Why this was considered pancreatic to start with? Because of the location?
Biopsy of the cell structure? I have NO idea.

The ovaries, which were no big deal, a few months later had to come out because they (suddenly) had dangerous masses, which they realised were contributing to her uncontrollable breakthrough pain.
She also has “spots” in one or both lungs, but are considered inactive. Back burner.
Seems there was something else, too…scribbles, pieces of paper, many bookmarks.

It isn’t that I think one diagnosis might improve her chances over the other. Fully aware of the limitations. She’s got it bad, whatever it is. I’m just wanting the quality of her care to be optimum, and for the target to be rightly aimed.
I just had that nag inside me. Do you know what I mean?

Thank you for letting me…vent. I think that’s all I’m going to be able to do.