On October 1, 2011, Judy's Journey begins. Mom noticed as she was getting ready for the day that she had a huge lump ballooning on the left side of her neck. She new immediately that it was nothing to mess around with. So she promptly had it checked out.
The doctor examined her and ordered a CT scan of her neck for the next day. Then they ordered more scans. By the end of the week, we pretty well knew that we were dealing with something big. The doctor ordered a biopsy of her neck and thyroid as well as made her an appointment with an oncologist and we would wait for results. The next Friday, we learned that the biopsy came back positive for cancer. Due to the fact that she had a substantial sized tumor on her left kidney they figured it was kidney cancer.
Mom saw the oncologist in Peoria on Oct. 18th at 10:30. Several family members went to this appointment with her and Jill and I listened in on the phone. The doctor walked we quickly realized that this doctor had not looked at any of the images, notes or reports that had been sent to him 2 weeks prior to her appointment. To make a long story short, NO ONE felt comfortable with this doctor who wanted mom to start chemo therapy in two weeks. At this point we know the cancer has metastasized to her lymph nodes, thyroid, adrenal glands, lungs, and brain. I asked the doctor if the pain mom had been experiencing in her hip for the last 6 months could be caused by the cancer instead of the diagnosed sciatica, to which said maybe, but wasn't really too worried about it.
While mom was still in the doctor's office I told mom that I was calling the Huntsman Cancer Institute to see if they would see her. She agreed that she would like a second opinion. So the race began!
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