Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Cancer and Pregnancy News

I have a couple things I need to talk about today and they are all somewhat related so I thought I would tie them in to one post.

Last week I found out that my aunt (my mom's brother's wife) has spine, liver, lung, breast and brain cancer. This, as you can imagine, is devastating news. She was just diagnosed with breast cancer almost 6 years ago and I remember being told about it a short time before my wedding in June 2003. At my wedding DH and I greeted and ushered our guests out of the church. When I saw her I remember seeing the pain in her eyes.

This past year at Thanksgiving she was complaining of a viral infection. She had gone to see her doctor and they thought it was a bladder/kidney infection because she was having severe pain in her back. She stayed at Thanksgiving for a couple of hours and then went home. She is a very determined person and continued to go to work, despite her increasing pain and decreasing energy level. Last week she went to work one morning and then called my uncle mid-morning to come and pick her up as she was in so much pain. He took her to the local hospital emergency room where they scanned her and found cancer throughout her body. She had a biopsy and it showed that all of the cancers found were "progressive" She has six months to live.

To compound the situation, my uncle also has congestive heart failure and at Thanksgiving was struggling to put his own jacket on. They don't have a lot of money and until this month when my mom helped him complete forms to get VA medical insurance, he didn't have any medical insurance so he has not gone to the doctor to treat his heart failure.

I feel so terribly bad for them. But I almost feel worse for my cousin, who is an only child. She is 24 years old. My mom called her the other night to talk to her and she was just crying the whole time and she told my mom "I just feel so alone". It just broke my heart. She is not alone, we are all here for her. But I can completely relate as a parent to her statement. I told DH "What if this happens to L in life? What if we are both terribly sick and he has to care for us on his own? Who will he lean on? What will happen when he no longer has both parents? Will he be all alone too?".

If you have a moment, please say a prayer for my family. They need all of the strength that they can get. Please also see the February 10, post from A Miracle to Come and send a prayer off to her BF and her mom. It must be the week for bad cancer news. http://amiracletocome.blogspot.com/

Please go to My Journey to Myles and Beyond to Surrogacy and wish my dear friend Niki "Congratulations". She found out this week that her surrogate is pregnant! http://myjourneytomylesandbeyond.blogspot.com/

I have also updated my previous test results blog to add more test results. Everything is looking good so far, so why are we not conceiving?

2 comments:

kayjay said...

I'm so sorry about your Aunt and the cancer diagnosis (and thank you for sending people over to support my BF and her Mom). It is never an easy thing to hear and the reality is difficult. I think the most important thing is that during difficult times, you find a support system to lean on, be it family or friends. You don't have to share blood in order to share experiences and I think that as long as you have a good support system in place, your L won't be alone. Many times we feel as though we are all alone (I know I do and I have a sister) but if you reach out, there will always be someone there to pick you up and help you. Sometimes they are people you haven't even met :).

Jill M. said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your aunt sweetie! Cancer is nasty, mean and relentless. I will definitely say a prayer for her. Hang in there!