Miracles

While mom was in the oncologist's office in Peoria, I called the Huntsman Cancer Institute and spoke with  Ryan, the patient coordinator for Dr. Agerwall.  Dr. Agerwall is the leading expert in the Western region for kidney cancer.  

I talked to him the day before about mom and he explained that they will not see a patient without seeing their records first to determine if there is anything they can do for them. We faxed mom's records to him and were waiting to see if Dr. Agerwall would see her.  

So when I called on the 18th, while mom was still at the oncologist's office in Peoria, Ryan told me that they were holding an appointment for her for the next day at 11:00, but they still needed 2 more records before they could definitely see her.  

I gave Ryan mom's primary care doc's phone # so he could request the info he needed.  Within 15 minutes, her PCP had faxed over the missing information.  

By this time it's 12:30 pm in Illinois.  We needed to find mom and dad a flight to Salt Lake City in time to get to the potential 11:00 am appointment.  My sister Jill got online and was able to find them seats on the last flight out of Bloomington at 5:30 pm. which would put them in Salt Lake City at midnight.   


Mom and Jeff still had three more appointments they had to keep before they could leave.  They were able to move one up to a closer time, and still made the other two. By the time they got home they needed to be on the road to the airport to make the flight on time.  They still had to pack!  When I found out they were just packing, I turned to my 10 year old son and said, "Come kneel with me.  We need to pray that Grandma and Grandpa are able to make it to their plane on time."  So, we did.


Mom and Dad made it to the airport 15 minutes before the plane was to depart!  They were told it was too late to check their bags.  Mom told the man at the gate she needed to be on the flight to get cancer treatment the next day and was there anything he could do?  He looked at her and said, "Yes"!  He took her bags and ran them down and loaded them on the plane while mom boarded. 


As Jeff got to the gate, they told him he couldn't get on b/c the boarding pass had mom's name on it.  He explained that mom had just gotten on the plane and she must of had his pass and he had hers, and they let him on.


Just as they sat down, mom's phone rang and it was me telling her that they doctor had reviewed her records and would definitely see her in the morning.  RELIEF!   


The next day we arrived at the beautiful Huntsman Cancer Institute.  Ryan met us at the front door with a wheel chair for mom.  He helped us get checked in and we learned that the doctor wasn't scheduled to be in the clinic that day, but after reviewing mom's records he didn't want to wait until the following week to see her.


Dr. Agerwall was so kind and very direct and thorough. Only a few minutes after he introduced himself Jeff turned to mom and said "Well have you made up your mind?"  Mom replied, "Yea, I want to be treated here!"

The doctor explained that there is no cure for kidney cancer when it has metastasized so far.   The first thing they needed to treat was the 4 tumors in her brain.  They would do that with radiation therapy.  He also explained that this form of cancer is very resistant to chemo therapy and that bio-meds were much more affective for treating this cancer.  

When mom told him about the pain in her hip he sent her to have a CT of her pelvis and wanted to start her on steroids immediately.  He told us if she had any changes in symptoms we needed to call them right away otherwise they would see her on Monday to start radiation.

The next day was Oct. 20.   Mom was looking much better than she did they day before.  The swelling from the mass on her neck was down by 50% half way through the day.  But we noticed mom was having a harder time finding the right words when she was talking and would use the wrong form of words.  She would get a little confused as well.  She was also having some other problems so we called the nurse line.  They wanted to have her admitted through the ER and ordered several more scans.  They then decided to double her steroids and start radiation first thing in the morning.  

When the results from the scans came back we learned that the cancer had eaten a 4 cm hole through her pelvis just below the socket on the right side.  So she is getting radiation on her brain 5 days a week for three weeks and 5 treatments of radiation to her pelvis as well. 


It's been a fast and furious week, but we have truly seen the Lord's hand in this journey all the way!  Mom feels she really needs to be treated at Huntsman and we are so very grateful for all the tender mercies and little miracles that have made it possible for her to be here.