mom...

My mom is very very sick.

She's been sick since before Christmas.

She's gone to the doctors in Clinton every two weeks for antibiotics for an illness that they can't name.

The third week in January she started going to the doctor every week due to constant pain.

The first week on February found my mom in the Clinton ER in so much pain she couldn't talk; she could barely breathe.

Diagnosis: "We don't know. But we know what it's not. So we're going to treat it like Bacterial Pneumonia with Pleurisy."

More high dose antibiotics and Hydrocodone.

She started to feel better after that.

She had a cigarette or 4 over the last two weeks (and visited the smoke filled Casino in Clinton) which infuriated my dad because she seemed to get sick again. Her lungs couldn't take the smoke. On Wednesday and Thursday of last week I begged her to go to the doctor. Her doctors weren't in. I asked her to see the on-call doc. She went Friday.

Still no diagnosis. More antibiotics, more Hydrocodone. But here's something weird on your lab work. Normal Platelet (the red blood cells that bind together to create blood clots, or basically to stop one from bleeding to death from a bruise) counts are between 180,000 and 250,000, depending on the day since platelets only have a 10-day lifespan. My mom's counts were down to 26,000 on Friday. On-call doctor says... let's make an appointment with a Blood oncologist and a surgeon on March 8th and 13th respectively. See what they want to do. Enjoy your antibiotics and the Hydrocodone until then.

I called my mom yesterday around 11:30 am. She sounded tired and had a slight wheeze, but her spirits seemed good. Dad was with her at work. She neglected to tell me that Dad was there because the pain she was in. Dad went home after lunch. Mom walked herself to the ER around 3:30-ish. (Mom is a transcriptionist at Mercy Hospital in Clinton.) The pain was unbearable. Even with the Hydrocodone, she couldn't get ahead of it or manage it. They did more blood work.

Platelet count was down to 12,000.

Potassium was up to 8.0. Normal is 1.8.

(When my mom was pregnant with me, I apparently sucked her dry of potassium, and she has been on pills ever since. So to be high... a huge concern.)

Preliminary Diagnosis: Acute Leukemia.

(As far as leukemia goes... either very bad or treatable. No clue which.)

She is being transported to the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics in about 3 minutes. She has already been accepted into the Leukemia Ward/Program within the Oncology Wing. She has an appointment with the head of that department as soon as she is settled in.

We're leaving at 9am to be there by 10:30, so we don't interrupt the doctors.

When I was relaying to my sister Shannon yesterday that Mom was once again in the ER, Shannon said, "Well, she can't die, she's not 66 years old yet."

My reply, "That doesn't mean that she can't get a blood illness that can't be picked up by the cat scans and MRIs that she'll have to fight for 3 years."

Oh, My God.

(I really said that.)

(And it happened.)

Sidenote: My grandma died of a blood cancer (Multiple Myoloma) at 66 years old. She fought it for 9 years. Her mother died at the age of 66. And I think her mother before her. (not all cancer.) These women were all first-born daughters like my mom. And like me.

I will try to keep this up to date as best I can. Now I need to get ready to leave.