Today I get to pick up my Aunt Marilyn (mom's sister), at the airport! She is flying in from Illinois to stay with my parents until the 25th. It is always so much fun being with the Irmegers, however many that may be! Their maiden name is Koontz, so several years ago, once us 1st cousins started getting married and having kids, we intentionally would get together at a common meeting place, maybe in Ohio, and would call it, Koontz Girls Reunion! My Aunt also had 4 kids, now 12 grandchildren. Allshouse count is 4 kids, 10 grandchildren! I am not exactly sure that there is an official "race" going on and as to who will finish w/ more grand kids, all I know is I did my part at 4, and I AM OUT! (I always say that, "once they start coming two at a time, it is time to stop!" Actually, twins do run in my family, my mom's side. The year my twins were born, we had a family reunion from my mom's mom's side - the George's. From 98 in attendance, there were 5 sets of faternal twins! My husband looked at me and said, "you should have told me this about a year ago!" :-)
My Aunt Marilyn is also a nurse. I say also, because my mom is a nurse along with my cousin, Margie (in Illinois). Sometimes having a lot of nurses can be like having too many chefs in the kitchen. However in this situation, we are welcoming all advice.
Mom's pain is still a concern and needs to be lifted in prayer. They did add morphine to her meds, and it helped a little, but not as much as they had hoped. Morphine was what the insurance did pay, not what I had mentioned the other day. I know the times I had extreme pain from my foot reconstruction and my ACL surgery, each day maybe was a wee bit better. It makes me really sad knowing right now, each day is a bit worse for her.
Yesterday my sister Jeannie spent a good bit of time on the phone with Hillman Center getting the genetic info started. Since both my mom's parent's died of cancer, different forms, they wanted to know the entire family history. I am so glad that she is there to do that! (When I was at the hospital w/ my mom, and had to do some patient info, I got both the Family Doctor AND the pharmacy that she uses WRONG! Opps!) They also do a genetic study to find out exactly what type of cells and cancer will respond to what types of treatments. A kind friend from church sat down with me on Sunday and shared his wife's and brother's cancer journey with me. He told me the info on the genetic study and why that helps and is necessary. Thanks, Gary! She will have blood work today, I believe, to get that going.
The blood work will also look into other things as her thyroid. She has had significant memory loss, especially over the past few weeks. This information really intrigued the doctor. We are so happy that everyone really seems to be looking at her big picture with everything. How grateful we truly are.
We are still waiting a day and time this week for the ultrasound that will further look at the tumor and will tell us more of the enlarged lymph nodes. This Friday at 11 is the appointment, 2nd opinion with Dr. Joshua Ruben at the Hillman Center. Yes, he is a surgeon, and this is NOT to be a surgical issue, but we want HIS opinion on that. He will also give a FULL oncology report of findings, head to toe as to the best overall treatment. This family consultation will take an hour. I would like to go, but I probably won't. If Jeannie can't, I will let Aunt Marilyn go in her place - not that I have the say as to who should be there, but we ALL want to be there and I want to respect the doctor, his time, and the size of the room (even though I don't mind standing...). My Aunt Marilyn is only here for 10 days, I want to give her all the time with her sister that she can have.
My mind is is everywhere with all the thoughts of the past, present and the future and my dreams are taking the hit! My dream last night was I was fired from my job, I needed to find a new one, friends were coming in from out of town and I had to help mom get ready. She had my babies at her house. I needed to find a job, AND my clothes because the bus was coming! I didn't want to work at Eat N Park again, like in college, but I was pretty sure I could get a job there. UGH...time to wake up!!!!!
If you are communicating with my mom personally, please reassure her that I am trying to do my best with keeping this blog discrete with personal information. When I talk to her, she now starts each conversation with, "now don't go putting this into the blog...". I do tell her everyone that has made a comment on her, emailed me or a note on Facebook. Please feel free to contact me at any time. raraigh@zoominternet.net or Molly Allshouse Raraigh at Facebook.
We all appreciate your love, support and your prayers - from the bottom of our hearts.
You are doing a great job Molly! I bet there is a ton more going on detail wise that you withhold. I know there was when we typed about our journey with our son, Jack. I really didn't want anyone to know at the time how time consuming and miserable my breastfeeding/milk pumping experience was, so I left out a ton about that and asked Jon to do the same when he wrote. It's an awkward experience.
ReplyDeleteI hope there is a cure for the pain and answers to the memory loss. SO GLAD you guys are in search of a full medical history. I wish the technology was not so pricey and that every human could get that info as a means of standard practice once they are born! One day...