July 8, 2009

Dr. Moser, the kidney doctor,  was the first to deliver the blow.  "You need an oncologist."  That damn "C" word again.  Even though I thought I had prepared myself for this, I wasn't ready.  When he said those words, they hit me like it was the first time I'd ever heard them.  My sisters and niece were there and we all knew we had to keep ourselves together for Mom.  A bright spot was when the Dr. Taylor, the urologist ,said that her other kidney looked great!  We were really happy about that.  Dr. Solomon, GI, noted she had gall stones, but those had also shown up when Mom had her appendix removed two years ago and were nothing to worry about.


July 9  An ultrasound shows Mom's liver looks good, too.  They noted that there is a 'cobblestone' look to it, but Mom explained that they found that 13 years ago when she had her nephrectomy.  At that time they sent a piece of it to three labs and no one could come up with an explanation for it.  It's possibly a sign of cirrhosis caused by drinking alcohol or Hepatitis and neither of these things applied to Mom.  A doctor along the way referred to it as 'cryptic cirrhosis".

A Dr. Brennen took a biopsy of the mass today.  During this procedure, the techs caught Mom's arm in between the gurneys and tore her skin pretty badly.  Now we're nursing that, too.


July 10  Shortly after lunch, Dr. Moser came into Mom's room and told her that she had to leave the hospital "now".  He said someone behind an insurance desk was dictating that she had to leave, and that he didn't agree with it.  We packed Mom up in a flurry and left.