discussion title:
? Uterine cancer and my Mom
Hello,
I'm new here to this board. Just looking for anybody who has gone through this. My dear Mom is 54, and has not been to a gynecologist in at least 12 years or something. She has had a long history of uterine fibroids. She has actually had an enlarged abdomen for years and I remember her always referring to it as "my big fibroid belly". She even has refused to wear t-shirts because they accentuate her belly. I have always urged her to go for her annual female checkups, but she hasnt.
So, earlier this month, she gets sick and ends up in ICU for sepsis (blood infection) and the doctors have no idea what from. While there, when the ER doc feels her lower abdomen by her belly button, he says something like "wow, has your belly always been this big?" My mom answers Yes. They ended up ordering her a cat scan of her belly. Supposedly it is suspicious for cancer, uterine sarcoma. We get an appointment that same week with a gynecologic oncologist who was referred by a ob-gyn in the ICU. We met with the gyn-onc, who has scheduled a abdominal hysterectomy for this coming Wednesday. He basically said my Mom has a mass inside her uterus that has to come out, and that she has a couple "small spots outside the uterus" as well. He did not go into details about anything. They ordered her a cat scan of her lungs to make sure these spots did not spread there too. They didn't, thank goodness.
Needless to say, I'm so worried. My Mom has been healthy and working as a nurse all along, up until 5 days before she ended up in the ICU. Then, my Dad sends me an email saying " I don't think your Mom will be around much longer, that's the feeling I have." I was shocked when I read this. My Dad gets to reading on the internet after drinking beer, and I think he reads the worst of the worst. I have read that uterine sarcoma is pretty rare, by the way. Even the nurse practitioner working for the gyn-onc seemed confused that a radiologist interpreting the cat scan could diagnose that cancer that way...she says you need a tissue biopsy, which is true.
Has anyone gone through this? I saw a glimpse of what the cat scan of her abdomen said, said something about a "pedunculated uterine mass" I believe. Everything I research with those words points to benign uterine fibroids. Another thing...my Mom lost around 40 lbs or so last summer without diet an exercise except for cutting out beer, which makes me think she could have cancer and I guess has been having pain and tenderness to her abdomen, which she did not tell me until recently. She told me today that she does not think she even has cancer, that she thinks it's her fibroids. She said she does not feel sick.
Thank you for reading this... I just need some postive words. I am scared for the surgery this coming Wednesday. My Mom is truly my best friend, and my world would be a mess if anything happened to her. I don't have any sisters or grandmothers to talk to. My husband and dad don't understand what I'm going through.
