Cancer is a BITCH

Between May 04 and Sept 07 I lost my mother, father, older sister and cousin to cancer. My mother was diagnosed in Fall 97 with ovarian cancer. At that time the news was good, it was still incapsulated and had not spread. She had a complete hysterectomy and did chemo and radiation. In October 02 she was given the cancer survivor designation. In late March 03 surgery showed the cancer had returned and spread to her bowels and colon and worse on the outer lining of her liver. Surgery removed the cancer and she started chemo and radiation again. Again she was told they had got all the cancer. In March 04 she was back in the hospital. The cancer was back and it had gone through the outer lining of the liver. Plus scar tissue from her earlier surgery was causing a partial blockage in her colon. She agreed to undergo an operation to remove the scar tissue. Anyone with any medical knowledge at all, knows the realistic outcome of a 70 yr old woman with cancer, who has been undergoing chemo, and an operation on the colon, near the bowels. She went septic and into a coma. Knowing that if she ever came out of the coma, the meds that would be required to treat the pain of cancer in the liver would require placing her in a medically induced coma, we made the best choice for her. We stopped hydration and nutrition and took turns sitting by her bed holding her hand and watching over her. On May 5, 2004 I finished my shift at 5:00 AM and my husband and I decided to make a quick trip home (100 miles). He had a meeting he needed to attend and I needed to check on my kids (10 and 16) and make sure everything was okay (my oldest son age 24 and his fiance were watching them). We got home at 7:45 and lay down to rest for a moment. at 8:01 the phone rang. My mama was gone home to God. My daddy was there holding her hand, alone in the room with her when she left him after 46 yrs of marriage. He sat there watching her face and holding her hand, and humming his gospel songs, until my sister came in the room. Then he just said; she's gone.