Lynn's Cancer History...
- Some time in 1997 Lynn had a malignant mole and the surrounding tissue removed from her arm.
- May 2000 Lynn had exploratory surgery on her abdomen, surgeons found the small intestines overlapping and cut that section out, a polyp was the cause of the intestines overlapping, and later that summer we found out that the polyp was melanoma or skin cancer.
- September 2000, after a long summer of severe headaches, Lynn went to the emergency room in the middle of the night and found out about a tumor in her brain. The tumor was removed but the devastating news was that it was melanoma, ie. skin cancer. The surgery was followed by a month of full brain radiation, Gamma Knife Radiation surgery, one month of high dose interferon treatment and a full year of low dose interferon treatment. (interferon is suppose to boost the immune system and makes you feel like you have the flu all the time)
- September 2002, as our hopes began to sore and we actually found ourselves talking about trivial things again, Lynn went in for some more scans and found that the cancer had spread to the inner brain. After consulting with several brain surgeons we decided to go with the least risky and the best possible outcome, another Gamma Knife Radiation surgery.
- November 11 2002, Gamma Knife radiation surgery.
- April 2003, Lynn goes from walking and talking to a wheel chair and drooling, dreading what may come I called hospice which helped me with her care tremendously.
- August 2004, Lynn has the first of what was to become very frequent grand mall seizures.
- March 2005, Easter weekend, Lynn’s health worsens to the point where she’s unable to talk, eat, or help herself with anything. She started bloating, continued with seizures and looked as if she would die any day.
- June 2005, Father’s day weekend, Lynn comes out of what has been a 4 month stupor in which we were sure she wasn’t going to make it out of.
- February 2006, after seeing Lynn’s health plateau and wanting to get some brain scans to see what was going on discontinued hospice and made arrangements for two contrasting MRI scans.
- April 2006, the MRI scans confirm that there is no brain tumor threatening Lynn’s life.
- May 2006, with the realization that Lynn was no longer at deaths doorstep Lynn began to pursue some physical therapy as well as changing her mindset and building some confidence in the few abilities that she still does have.
- October 2006, Lynn gets out of bed and into her wheelchair virtually by herself.
- 2006 highlights – Lynn picked up knitting, reading morning and night, emailing, exercising, baking with the kids, and unplugs herself from the TV altogether. She feeds herself, brushes her own teeth twice a day, gets up with the help of the boys, and wants to figure out how to get involved with home schooling.
- March 2007, Lynn’s health goes from bad to worse, she’s unable to talk, eat, or help herself with anything. All of her meds are discontinued; she stares for long periods of time seemingly unaware of anyone around her. After the incredible hiatus from impending death that we enjoyed the whole of last year we are now wondering if Lynn will make it through yet another downward spiral in her health.
- May 2007, after going in for an MRI, the neurosurgeon called hours later with the news of a massive inoperable tumor that had spread to Lynn’s brain stem. While this explains everything that has been going on these past few months it brings no comfort and only magnifies our helplessness. The kids and I spent the entire afternoon bemoaning this news to the point of exhaustion; I have to admit that although we have experienced the shock and devastation of news like this before it was especially hard after seeing Lynn do so well last year.
- June 2007, I called hospice in anticipation of Lynn’s death after realizing that that would be the only way to avoid a police investigation if she dies.
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