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Hi my name is David and I lost my mom to colon cancer on December 2 2000. She started getting sick in April 1999 with bad stomach cramps. She went to her doctor and she was referred to a gastroenterologist. at first the doctor thought it was diverticulitis and she was treated for that but that wasn't it. Then the doctor thought it was colitis, she was treated for this and it wasn't that either. She had a lot of tests done and they all came back as inconclusive.
Then the doctor came to a conclusion that something was blocking her colon so she was referred to a surgeon and the surgeon was going to do an exploratory on her and cut out whatever was blocking her colon and sew the 2 ends together. She had 3 colonoscopys done and the cancer never showed up. The cancer wasn't found until she had surgery in January 2000. She was in the hospital for a week and I went and saw her almost every day. She went through either chemo or radiation or both and it was making her real tired and her blood pressure real low.
The day before Easter 2000 she fell and broke her hip and she had to go into the hospital again for surgery on her hip. The reason she fell was because of her blood pressure being so low and her being tired. She was in the hospital for another week and I saw her almost every day. The following month she went into the hospital again for about 3 days because she got extremely dehydrated. She still wasn't getting any better from her first surgery and she had more tests done on her that came back normal. My mom had told me that there was an outside chance that her cancer had come back and if it had then she wouldn't survive.
This made me scared and sad because I may lose my best friend of 32 years. The surgeon did another exploratory on her in August 2000 thinking it was just scar tissue from her first surgery that had to be cut away and it turned out that the cancer had come back on what was left of her colon. there wasn't much the surgeon could do for this except to bypass the cancer. She was in the hospital again for another week and I went to see her every day and stayed with her for 4-5 hours a day. Just staying with her for that long may have prolonged her life.
From August of 2000 up until the time she passed away, things weren't good for her at all. There were times when she was in so much pain, you’d think she was giving birth. She also was having panic and depression attacks. She didn't want to be left alone. If she was left alone she would get very sad and there were some nights when she would get very little sleep because of panic attacks.
On top of all this she also had to deal with a colostomy and she didn't like this at all. Thanksgiving dinner of 2000 was the last dinner that me my brother, my mom and dad all had together. Even though my mom couldn't eat very much, she still had dinner with us and I'll never forget that dinner. Every night I would pray to God to make her cancer go away and for her to live for a long time. On the morning of the day when my mom passed away she was at home and in a coma. She couldn't see us but she could hear us, so all 3 of us, my mom's brother and sister all got to say good bye to her.
Her sister was out of town so she called my mom to say good bye. I was told that right after my aunt said good bye to her is when she passed away. My mom's name was Claudia and she bowled in a league for many years and sold Avon for nearly 24 years. It's a shame that she didn't make it to 25 years because at 25 years she would've gotten a lot of presents and it's also a shame that she had to go this way because she was a warm and caring person with a positive attitude. No one should have to go through what she went through in 1 year. She was only 62 when she died which is too young.
Here is a letter that I wrote to my mom 2 months before she passed away. It made her so happy she cried. The letter reads:
Dear Mom
There are some things that I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know how to say them, so that's why I'm writing this letter. I want you to know how proud I am that you're my mother. Your positive attitude has helped me so many ways in my life. It has helped me overcome my disabilities (I've been diagnosed as being autistic) and has made me work harder than most other people. It has also helped me with many of the challenges that I've faced over the years and has helped me strive towards my goals.
Without you I might have not done as well in school and I probably wouldn't have received the award for being an outstanding student when I graduated from the 8th grade. I sure wish that you could've seen me get that award. (She didn't get to see this because my brother was graduating from high school on the same night so she and 1 of my grandmas went to his graduation and my dad and my other grandma went to mine). In general, without your help, I wouldn't be as well off, (physically and emotionally) as I am today.
I want to thank you for being there when I really needed you. You're the best friend that I ever had. I know you're going through a difficult time right now, but I hope that you can beat this illness that you have and live for many years to come. Love David P.S. I have a list of things that i want for my birthday, but the one present that I'd want the most is for you to get better so you can go back to doing the things you enjoy. Prayers for everyone who has lost their mother or a loved one to cancer.