Theresa Buck

First post: Feb 13, 2017 Latest post: Mar 27, 2017
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.Last October we went on a day trip with our friends, Terri was experiencing trouble walking and had to sit and rest quite often. Since our friends had experienced some of the same problems for some time, we guessed that she had injured her back by lifting or twisting. Terri went to her Doctor and they determined that she had a blood clot in her right leg, they treated it accordingly, with Warfarin and some concentrated vitamins to correct and enzyme deficiency. The blood clot issue was being resolved but the back pain intensified. The problem seemed to continue, but would moderate at times and up until the middle of December it was manageable. Just before Christmas, maybe the latter part of December the back pain again started to intensify, so shortly after Christmas we started seeing a Chiropractor, after x-rays and some adjustments she felt a little better but the pain continued. The Chiropractor said she had to see her Doctor before he would continue for fear of doing some damage to her back.  

Her Doctor ordered x-rays and when they did not reveal anything, the she decided to do a Cat Scan of her pelvic, thorax, and chest. That is when they discovered the mass in her lung and recommended an Oncologist, the Oncologist was not happy with the CatScan and ordered an MRI. The MRI revealed the mass in the lung, but also showed that the Cancer (presumably) had spread to the Kidney, Liver and the right Hip. They then decided that the mass in the lung should be Biopsied, which is when the whole thing started to get more complicated. The Oncologist said the Hip had to be addressed before any other treatment was prescribed. She was then scheduled for the Biopsy on a Thursday, but it was cancelled due to her blood INR numbers being too high, they then rescheduled for the following Monday (1/30/17) and did the procedure, then the Lung collapsed and they had to rush her back to surgery to put a chest tube in. She was scheduled to go home the next day providing the hole in the lung (pneumothorax) was healed. Tuesday morning the hole had expanded, so they had to attach a pump to clear out the lung.

 

Actually, this was a blessing in disguise, the orthopedic surgeon was looking at the MRI and decided he needed a pinpoint x-ray of the Hip. He immediately ordered her not to place any weight on her right hip after looking at the x-rays and scheduled her for a Wednesday morning Bipolar Hip replacement. The reasoning behind this was discussed earlier with the Oncologist, explaining that the Right Hip would have to be stabilized prior to any Chemical or Radiological treatment could begin. Wednesday morning 2/1/17 she had the Hip replacement, which turned out to be the best decision she made. The Hip femur bone neck (top) was about between 2/3 and ¾ destroyed and the surgeon cut out the Cancer and repaired that part, lower on the femur they found a tumor that had attached itself to the soft tissue and had almost eaten its way completely through the bone. The surgeon said he had to put a long rod in the bone and used a medical cement to repair the bones. She came through the surgery great and was up and walking 4 hours after the procedure. The next step is a couple weeks of therapy and then 2 weeks of intensive Radiation and then onto the chemical portion of the treatment. All of the Doctors have assured us that every bit of Cancer is treatable and that procedures and Medicines have come 20 fold since the last 5 years.

 

She moved to Acute Rehab in the Hospital and was doing fine until February 8th when I noticed she was slurring her speech and was not completing her sentences. She suffered a stroke and they determined that she had blood clots in her lung and very close to her heart. The stroke affected her speech and swallowing and has not caused any problems with her motor functions. The clots on the other hand have placed a great stress on both the heart and the lungs. They decided to place an IVC vein filter in her right leg to stop any further migration of that blood clot. The Doctors decided that the best place for Terri was in the ICU for more one on one care, she stayed there until February 14th at which time she moved to PCU (Post Critical).

February 19th, Terri was moved back to the ICU due to breathing issues, the decided to put her on a BiPap machine to help with the breathing. Machines of this nature require constant monitoring so hence the trip back to ICU. This was to another “cautionary” move, but her breathing started to degrade and they decided to intubate her. This process greatly help to relieve the breathing stress and slowly but surely her vitals started to improve. She is heavily sedated but resting comfortably as of 6:30 PM 





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