Posted by:
nomonomo
(
)
Date: September 02, 2017 12:18AM
I haven't been posting much in the last 18 months or so, because Mrs. Nomonomo has been sick. I'm sorry to say that she passed away about ten days ago. She fought bravely, remained positive to the end, and never lost her sense of humor.
Two years ago she started having strange symptoms that got worse and worse. When she got checked out, we learned that she had anemia, that in turn was due to blood loss from a bleeding cyst on an ovary. She also had a large (benign) fibroid tumor in her uterus, and endometriosis.
During a physical exam related to the above, her gynecologist spotted a little speck of cancer on her cervix, and sent us to an Oncological Gynecologist. He said it was small, "early," Stage 1, "very curable," etc. In spite of it's size, the "cure" was the same: radiation for several weeks, with a light chemotherapy for good measure. That was followed up by Brachytherapy, which is also radiation but administered internally.
After that, however, they determined that the radiation didn't work. The cancer had continued to grow, and the radiation had done more damage than good. The next step was a radical hysterectomy. The radiation left a lot damage, and she also needed to have two nephrostomy tubes placed to keep her kidneys functioning (one tube was removed after seven weeks; the other remained in place until she died).
The surgeon said he thought he'd gotten all the cancer, but said that if it had already metastasized, then it would come back, and that if it did, she wouldn't last two years. The plan was for her to remain in the hospital one night for observation, but there were so many complications associated with the hysterectomy that she remained for six days, and multiple return visits totaling about 20 days. Additionally, between the hospital visits and the radiation, she had been essentially bed-ridden for about six weeks, so she required home nursing and physical therapy to recover. She also ended up loosing more and more blood through the nephrostomy tube, because it wore through the wall of an artery! When that was fixed, though, she rebounded and had a great summer.
Of course, the threat of the cancer returning loomed overhead, and, sure enough, it came back in a few months. At that point, she started a regimen of chemotherapy. It worked initially, but it also compromised her immune system, and she repeatedly developed highly resistant infections. Three times we returned to the hospital for 14 days of antibiotic infusions, so six weeks total.
The chemotherapy worked for a while, but then stopped working, so it was terminated. Since the chemotherapy was stopped, though, the infections stopped as well. Her Oncologist found a clinical trial in which she could participate. It was an immunotherapy regimen, and that excited her because she'd been reading about them. Like the chemotherapy, it worked partially. There were about six things in her lungs, and pelvic and abdominal areas that they were measuring regularly. 3 got smaller, 2 stayed the same, but one continued to grow.
By this past May the cancer was working its way into her G.I. tract, and she started to suffer from bowel obstructions. She ended up in the hospital twice in June, once for 5 days and the next for 6.
After the second hospital visit, she was losing strength. She never returned to the second floor of our house. She needed a walker, but could get around ok. They also put her on intravenous food and we managed to stave off the obstructions for a month, but in early August she had another one. The bowel obstruction cleared, but they explained that they had run out of medical options, other than treating her symptoms and pain. So, after seven days in the hospital, we transferred to a hospice center.
In the ambulance ride over, she could hold a normal conversation, but she continued downhill pretty quickly. The first few days she could get up and move around some. Towards the end she was determined to get up several times a day and try to exercise a little, as if not to give up. In the last few days it was only rocking side to side and counting to four repeatedly. The second to last day she'd only sit on the edge of the bed. The last day she never got up.
Up until about the last three days she could talk, although she wasn't holding conversations. After that, we worked out a system where she could blink her eyes multiple times for yes, and once for no. On the last full day she never really responded at all.
After two weeks there, she passed peacefully in her sleep at 12:28 a.m.
In total, she spent 71 days in the hospital due to complications, plus the six weeks of outpatient antibiotic infusions. And, of course, that was on top of all the various forms of radiation and chemotherapy.
It's been ten days, and I still can't believe she's gone. Things had steadily snowballed over time, and I realized that I felt some peace after returning home, but it occurred to me then how miserable she must have been in those last days.