Curve Ball

Will it ever just let up? The demands of life I mean. Can't she just catch a break? My mom I mean. I've been busy with my mom lately. She had her physical in March. They had to investigate several suspicious things. One of them was a lump in her breast. She had a mammogram, and a biopsy to reveal she has breast cancer. She is scheduled for a MRI next week for that, so that the surgeon can determine what she is working with when she goes in to remove the cancer. We will have to wait, I suppose, to find out if she will be needing any Chemo therapy after the cancer is removed.
As if that's not enough, she had a CT scan of her abdomen as well, if you remember, she had her large intestines removed last January (11), because she had colitis and had a bowel obstruction, slight perforation of her bowels and some gangrenous lesions as well as some cancer in there. They just wanted to follow up and check out that things were as should be in there. Well, they aren't. Of course not. The doctor now suspects that she was misdiagnosed, and that she actually has Crohn's disease which affects much more of your digestive tract than Colitis does. The CT scan revealed that she had "something going on in there". They couldn't tell from the CT exactly, so they have sent her today for a MRI of that area. They had initially suspected what they were seeing was another obstruction or a hernia. Well a few days after her CT, she developed a HUGE abscess on her abdomen. The doctor had to lance it last Monday. It drained massive amounts of yuck! Now, it seems, it isn't just an abscess. Mom and I were into the emergency room at the General Hospital on Friday evening because out of the lance site, there was feces being excreted. The same as out of her stoma site. (area where her intestine was brought to the surface of her skin, to attach the ostomy bag) Well the doctor there highly suspects, that this is now a fistula. A fistula is a tunnel through her abdomen from her small intestine to the surface of her skin.
Keeping this under control is almost impossible. She is really getting frustrated. She is bandaging the fistula with gauze and tape, but the problem with that is, that there is a large volume of Yuck expelling, and it leaks, it leaks onto the adhesive for her ostomy appliance, and then that becomes compromised and leaks. She is spending an hour at a time fixing this and re-applying, changing appliances, and they are expensive. The appliance is approximately $20 each. (Not covered by benefits). Well at once point she was changing it up to 3 times a day.
We think we have figured out a way to patch her up for at least 24 hrs at a time. She does however have to change her gauze frequently.
She's frustrated, and I am frustrated. No medical professional has offered any solution to this. There is "nothing you can do, but wait for it to heal" is what we have been told.
That wasn't good enough for me, so I did some research on the Internet last night. Apparently a "Wound care nurse" can apply a emptyable bag apparatus to the fistula, and they can last up to 7 days, without leaking. I will be seeing my mom a little later in the afternoon today, and I am going to insist that she request a wound care nurse to visit with these specific wound draining bags .. made specifically for fistulas. At least there is a light.
This is a lot of stress. My mom had never handled stress very well, and I am very worried about her emotional well being and health.
Honestly, I would never let on, but I am getting exhausted too.

On a lighter side. We had a fabulous Easter. My best friend, her son, Angela, Maizey and I all went to a local farm to do some Easter activities. They had an Egg hunt, Egg painting, Hay rides, Pony rides, and Pictures with baby bunnies!!! it was just enough excitement for the kids.



Another few exciting pieces of news are that we have booked a couple vacations. We will be going to Maizey's dad and papa's cottage at the end of June, and camping at Sandbanks provincial park again in August.

Here is our exact campsite for August! we are very excited!


We will be camping in Killbear provincial park in July. We have decided not to buy a camper yet. We are going to wait until we can purchase it quicker. Maybe finance for 3 years or 5 at the most. This year we will simply buy a larger tent. The one we are looking at is huge. It sleeps 11 people, has 3 rooms, and a built in battery operated lighting system, and fan. I have read some great reviews about it. It should provide the space we need. We can also borrow my brother's utility trailer if we need to have more area for packing things to go. We are very comfortable with this decision.