Please pray!

I am writing this post to ask you to please pray for my mom. I haven’t blogged much about her condition, simply because I didn’t know where to begin. But, I know the power of prayer and I asking for yours. Here goes...

Mom has suffered from many illnesses beginning when I was in 6th grade. She was diagnosed with breast cancer. I remember going to school the day of her surgery being so worried about her and her telling me that there was only a 20 % chance she would have breast cancer and not to worry. Well, that night, they sat me down and told me that sure enough it was. My mom taught where I went to school and after teaching all day, she would get me out of school a little early and we would drive 1 ½ hours to Baylor Dallas each way every day for 30 days. Thankfully the breast cancer never returned.

Then, when I was a sophomore in high school we found out that she had liver and colon cancer. She had these tumors removed and did not do radiation or chemo at the time. They thought they had gotten it all. Then, when I was a freshman in college, the carcinoid cancer of the liver returned. She has continued to live with the liver cancer for the past 12 years. About 5 years ago, she had two chemoembolization treatments (where they go in through a catheter and shoot a chemo treatment directly into the liver) and we almost lost her during one of those. Her system did not take that well. She has also taken and continues a very painful chemo shot every three weeks for many years.

A few years ago she was diagnosed with diabetes, thought to be related to the carcinoid tumors she has in her liver. This is a daily struggle as well. She also suffers from neuropathy (painful numbness in the legs and feet).

She also had to have all her top teeth removed due to bone loss (again tied to her tumors) and have all new implants put in. I never knew of anyone who took better care of their teeth than my mom!

Most recently this summer, she began to have swelling in her abdomen. They did surgery to remove fluid from around her lungs where they found other tumors. She began taking a chemo med (10 pills a day) and it totally changed her. She slept all the time, was dizzy, stumbled around, talked crazy, etc. She still has some of these symptoms.

Well, she stopped taking those and began a new chemo med about 3 weeks ago that has recently had a study showing great success with the carcinoid tumors. On Saturday, her oncologist called her and told her that she needed to come in to the ER at Baylor immediately, that he had gotten some test results showing that her kidney functions were not good.

So, here we are…

They have done and continue to do many blood tests daily to determine what is going on with her kidneys. They have told her that she is having “Complete Renal Failure”. Unfortunately, the kidney doctor is scratching his head on what is causing the kidneys to fail. They have done a biopsy and prelim results do not show anything out of the ordinary. More results should come within a week (seems like a lifetime). They decided to do dialysis and she has had two treatments with a third tomorrow.

So, I ask you to pray for her. I strongly believe in the phrase that “The Lord will not give you anything you can’t handle.” Mom is a true testament to that. She has been so strong and has had such positive attitude. It is so hard to see your mom go through so much. I ask you to pray for the doctors to give them the wisdom to know what to do for her. I ask you to pray for my dad who has been by her through every step and doesn’t leave her side. I also ask you to pray for my precious 16 year old niece that my parents adopted when she was very young as she goes through this as well.

So many are struck with this mean cancer disease. I wish we had more answers and could cure all. For now…we have the power of prayer.

I love you mom...you mean the world to me!