Four: Treatment Two: Immunotherapy and Setbacks

Four: Treatment Two: Immunotherapy and Setbacks

One of the many setbacks my mom would encounter once the fall came around was fluid retention in her abdomen. It would be the most annoying and painful setback for her. She was off treatment of any kind for close to two months because of this fluid buildup.  Also during that time, her liver became inflamed and irritated. Mom’s doctor wanted her off treatment for a few weeks to allow her liver to heal and manage the fluid. By December, mom’s doctor decided she needed to be back on treatment, but that they would try something new.  Chemo was out the window and Keytruda would be next. Keytruda is an immunotherapy treatment that works with your immune system to help fight cancer.  Mom received two treatments, only once every three weeks. They were given on December 14^th and January 4^th of 2018.

By now, the cancer just had more of a head start and was rapidly beginning to spread.  I don’t believe this was because she had gone so long without any treatment. I believe her fast decline was because she had stage 4 cancer and it was just too late.  Therefore, the Keytruda just didn’t do its job.  It was also because of her other setbacks from the cancer spreading.  They found a blood clot in her right leg after performing an ultrasound on January 24^th.  For this, my mom would then receive instructions that same day on how to inject medicine in her stomach, morning and night.  She ended up doing them all on her own.  My dad said he believes it was around 23-24 Injections.  God bless her. Most of my family and I initially thought her setbacks were from the Keytruda side effects, but in the end, it was mom’s cancer.  They would stop giving Keytruda after finding out about the blood clot.

It was the week after January 7^th, where my mom suddenly had zero appetite and was barely eating. She would start to keep losing weight slowly and was looking more and more sickly. A few popsicles here and there, jello and a few sips of chicken broth.  Again, we thought her having no appetite was completely stemming from the Keytruda, because that is an actual side effect: Loss of Appetite. My mom’s birthday was January 5^th and my dad, my husband and our daughter all took her out to dinner to Applebee’s.  Mom was craving their ribs and fries so hey, how could we say no. This was on the 7^th and would be her last “real” meal.  She enjoyed it thoroughly and licked her plate clean.  She had such a great appetite that night.  She enjoyed a few chips and artichoke dip, ribs and fries with ketchup and even a small shooter dessert of strawberry shortcake.  It was a great night.  Then we went back to our house where I gave mom her birthday gift.  It was a beautiful hand-made wooden frame and had an antique style to it painted in white. It was a cork board and I had everyone in my family join in on giving her something for inspiration and I would then tack it on the board.  She received that and then some; with so many stunning gifts, books, recipes, jewelry, music, cards.  It was lovely and my mom loved it.  She couldn’t stop thanking me.  It’s safe to say that January 7^th was the “best”, last day for my family and I.

From January 10^th onward, mom’s appetite rapidly declined.  My grand mom wanted to come down for a few days to be with my mom since it had been a while.  She stayed with my parents for nine days.  It was a struggle for my dad in various ways because having someone stay with you is hard enough.  But when your wife is sick, barely eating and at this point, barely uttering two words to them, I could only imagine how taxing that was for my dad. And the same goes for my grand mom.  You have a 92 year old, Italian woman who only wants to cook and freeze meals, but her daughter doesn’t have an appetite.  It was pure hell for them to say the least.  I visited over there with my daughter twice and being there for two hours was painful, so I couldn’t imagine being there every day.  My grand mom stayed from January 28^th to February 6^th.  

On February 5^th, I was at Panera bread one morning searching for jobs when my dad sent me a text that said he was taking mom to the ER soon.  I told him I could meet them there early afternoon.  They got there around noon and I got to the ER around 2:45pm. They were so busy that it took almost four hours just to get a room in the back.  The emergency room was a sea of pastel yellow masks; filled with people who most likely had the flu.  Ick factor indeed. Once mom finally got a room around 4pm, dad and I just stayed with her the entire time and did our best with everything.  A few scans and some tests were run and it was not looking good.  Mom would never go back home.