Thank you for visiting this journal and following Mom's journey. We appreciate any and all prayers for her, for the family, and for her medical team!
On December 21st, Mom's doctor asked her to go to the ER. She had been having problems with her blood pressure being a bit high and they wanted to check things out. Dad took her to Emory and dropped her off. He wasn't able to stay with her because of the COVID restrictions.
One of the first doctors she saw ordered a CT scan of her head. He must have done so just out of some sort of intuition because every doctor she saw after that commented that there was no clinical indication for a head CT. We are very thankful that he ordered it though because they ended up finding what they thought was a cluster of small tumors in her brain.
This was completely unexpected. She was not having any real neurological symptoms except occasionally having trouble finding the right words, which she attributed to being 78. The fact that this happened as COVID cases are surging in the Atlanta area made things more difficult because no one could go and be with her in the hospital.
Since it was just before Christmas, and because COVID has slowed things down, they decided to admit her to the hospital so that she could get the necessary testing done right away rather than sending her home and doing more scans and tests on an outpatient basis.
An MRI of her brain showed the tumors to be larger than originally expected. They then did a biopsy to determine if it was something that originated in the brain or had spread from somewhere else. The initial read of the biopsy showed it was definitely malignant, but it was inconclusive as to what type of cancer. A CT scan of her chest and abdomen showed no obvious signs of other tumors that it may have originated from.
She was able to come home on 12/23.
On the evening of New Years Eve, we got a call from the doctor who discharged her from the hospital that the final pathology report was available and that it confirmed that it is Glioblastoma Multiformae. This is the same type of brain cancer that John McCain, Ted Kennedy, and Beau Biden all had. GBM is a very aggressive form of cancer so we definitely appreciate any prayers!
We have not yet seen the oncologist, but expect that will happen very soon now that she has a definitive diagnosis and will update this journal as we have more information such as a prognosis and treatment plan.
I’ve been meaning to share that Mom’s grave side service will be Tuesday, May 10th at 9 am at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton. She did not want a big funeral, but all are welcome for this service. 🦋
2025 Mount Carmel Church Lane
Canton, GA 30114
We will have more info about the service in Louisiana shortly! I’ll share that as soon as we have it settled.
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