Mom was finally able to leave the hospital on March 7. Because she needed time to recover and heal after such a long ordeal her appointment with the oncologist was moved back to last Monday. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers because her situation is so rare. The doctors do not know for sure if she is lymph node positive or negative. If she was negative, it would mean no chemo and if she was positive it would mean chemo. As it stands, there is a 20-25% chance that the cancer will come back regardless of whether or not she does chemo. This next piece of info really surprised me- you would think it would be more beneficial. If she does do the chemo, the benefit is only 4-9%. That means if there were 2 groups of 100 and one group did chemo and one didn't, only 4-9 more people in the group that did chemo would remain cancer free. Because of all of the problems she has had with nausea, that is also a consideration. The doctor wouldn't tell her which way to go but was okay with either decision and said she could also start the chemo and if she got too sick she could stop. This coming Monday she is going to get a second opinion and then make her decision. I pray that she is able to make a decision without too much stress and also one she will be happy with in the long term. More than anything though, I pray that she doesn't have to deal with any more cancer ever.
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