Ok, I know that it has been weeks since my last post. Since then, any time I run into someone, they ask.... How is your mom doing? Well, I wanted to wait to post until after mom's drainage tubes were taken out. We sort of were assuming that this would be somewhere around 3-4 weeks after surgery. Mom just had the drainage tubes out on Thursday. It was just over 7 weeks that she had them in. Yeah, it is a long time. No, the doctors were not too worried. She had the tubes in so long because of the amount of volume of drainage that was still coming out. I wouldn't call it typical, but it is not really unusual. Some people just take a bit longer to heal.
The tubes came out because mom developed a bit of an infection around the incision. It is a few days after and it is looking better already. Amazing what antibiotics can do. She will be going to the doctor on a weekly basis to have any excess fluid aspirated until the drainage stops. Hopefully this won't be for too long.
Mom was off of the chemo drugs for about 8 weeks (3 weeks before surgery and 5 weeks after surgery). This 8 weeks gave her some much needed time to regain feeling and strength in her fingers and toes. Her energy level was better too.
She is back on her 2 weeks on chemo, one week off chemo. This will be her long-term treatment. In addition, every 3 weeks she will go in for an infusion. Every 3-4 months she will have a CT scan to make sure that things are held at bay. It has been a long road to get here, but we are here.
