Cancer, Chemo, Current Status...

Mieke here. As much as I may not like it...I am back to update the blog with some unfortunate news. When mom was first diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer, more than 4 years ago, we were devastated. Who wouldn't be? We were given a poor prognosis of maybe a few months because the cancer was coating mom's organs and was so advanced it was inoperable. Leave it to her to push through and live a life to see me married, Ross and Rumy graduate with their doctoral degrees, Aaron and I graduate from Hope, Ainsley born, George born, Lorelei born, anticipating another baby in April (yay Ross and Rumy are expecting!!!) a nephew's wedding in Hawaii, selling their family home of 27 years, moving into a condo with a lovely view, continuing to work as a nurse at Holland Hospital, watching Stan the Man become a bus driver for WO, and a surprise 60th birthday party! Lots of experiences that we weren't sure she would have back then. Thank you God for these gifts. Not to say that these times were not mixed with hardships, hospital visits, chemo, blood transfusions, and surgeries that took us all on an emotional roller coaster. Amazing how the good times in life outweigh the bad. All along, we had support from mom's faithful friends and family who were there for meals, cards of encouragement, flowers to brighten her spirits, and visits galore. Thank you for that. Now, we are facing a tough turn in the journey....


Starting a few weeks ago, mom had swelling in her body which we believed to be caused by various factors like chemo and steroids. While spending time up north with dad, she became very ill one morning and an ambulance was called. Ainsley was very confused why grandma had to ride in the white ambulance :( This led to figuring out that mom had a Pulmonary Embolism in her lung and blood clots in her legs. This was a scary time as she was very weak and sick. We found out that only 1 in 5 live after a PE episode. She was put on blood thinners and a few days later, she started to have blood in her urine. The urologist figured out there was bleeding in the right kidney caused by the Lovenox. Surgery was done to cauterize the bleeding in the kidney last Wednesday. This did not seem to stop the bleeding, it got worse, and she had extreme pain from passing blood clots...causing another hospitalization. Ugh, are you sensing how difficult these weeks have been? To top it all off, mom missed Alissa's wedding (her niece from Chile), which she had been looking forward to for a long time. When our whole family returned from the wedding in Detroit to visit with mom and dad, mom was in so much pain she couldn't get out of bed or speak much at all. It was very hard to see her that way. It was so tough that we felt this might be the end of her life. We met with Hospice because additional care for pain was needed. It turns out, the methadone that mom was given for pain had not taken full effect and that is why she was so miserable. The next day, she felt MUCH better. She was even able to go to a funeral for a friend from church. She has been much more comfortable since then.

Today we had an important meeting with her cancer Dr. We were prepared and ready to ask the "tough questions" and to see where this all was going. We were quite surprised and maybe not quite ready to hear such an honest response. "We think you have about 6 months to a year to live." He said it like it was a plain a simple fact and it hit us like a ton of bricks. He explained that she has beat the odds more than once through this whole journey and she has had much more time than most. Still, not a fun thing to hear. We decided it is indeed best to continue chemo to try and bring her cancer count down. It has increased from 368 to 606 in the last month, being off of treatments during that time with all of the other complications. If this chemo does not work, they will try one other type. If that does not work, she will stop chemo treatments and enter Hospice to keep her comfortable. She will also have an IVC put in to prevent blood clots going to her heart.

Sorry, this was long and not fun news for anyone to hear. BUT...we have decided that we will celebrate her life and make the best of the remaining time together. Will you help us? There is so much to live for! We are also going to need your support more than ever as she will need 24/7 care when times are hard. We can figure this out more as that time comes near. We will do our best to update here. Thank you for being there for our family, you have idea how much your kind thoughts and prayers mean to us.

-Mieke