Claudia has followed lots of stories of people who needed help and prayers. She cared deeply for her friend Mary who passed not long ago. Mary required care for Lupus, but Claudia provided friendship and unconditional love, something Mary knew til she died. Now it's our turn to follow Claudia's story and provide prayers and warm thoughts and loving care and friendship. That is why I have started this CaringBidge site. For us!
A couple months ago, Claudia was clipping her toe nails and cut her big toe a little short and it bled, something we all have probably done before. Well, her small cut got infected. Claudia did what anyone might do and tried to self treat it. For a few weeks, it wasn't getting worse, wasn't getting better. Then, it looked as though it might be getting better. But really, it had gotten much worse. She became sick to her stomach two days in a row. Claudia got me out of bed and said she had to go to the ER. Her pain was extreme and her infected toe turned real bad in a matter of 36 hours. Gangrene had set in. While in the ER, they found out about other issues. These issues were why Claudia's big toe wasn't healing. Claudia has vascular disease. They did a stent operation on her right femoral artery and put three stents in. After that, she had her big toe amputation surgery. She had numerous tests that had revealed, Claudia has a heart too weak for any real success at surgery right now. The Doctors, while doing a CT scan to determine blood flow, discovered a mass in her colon. They can't determine if it's cancerous with a colonoscopy because her heart is to weak to take the anesthesia. They can't strengthen her heart because of blood clotting or bleeding out. If they stop blood thinners, her stents would clog within a couple of days and she would develop blood clots or infections. If they don't stop or even reduce blood thinners somewhat, she could bleed out. She would have better chances of dying then not. Even if she did survive, the chances of such surgery working on her heart are very low. It might not work at all. If she could strengthen her heart over the next 60 days or so, her cancer (mass), and that's what the doctor's think it is, will probably grow larger and spread into other areas. They have already noted she has larger lymph nodes, meaning they think it's already spread. 60 days might be too late to get a heart operation, a colonoscopy (biopsy), and then try to withstand chemotherapy and radiation treatments. This is why Claudia is in hospice at home. She wishes she could reach out to each and tell you her story. Our family will do everything we can to make her happy and comfortable for whatever time she has left and we still believe in miracles and prayers.
I wrote this over three weeks ago. I will update you soon.
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