Rest in peace

The CDC states that “each year, about 8 million people die from cancer worldwide” ("World Cancer Day"). My mother-in-law was part of that statistic.

July 5^th, 2013 my family’s life drastically changed. She wasn’t feeling very well so decided to go in for a checkup. The doctors found a mass in her liver that needed further investigation. Our lives (this includes my husband, brother-in-law, sisters-in-law, father-in-law, our children, and three foster children) since then has been a roller coaster ride.

 
 She was diagnosed with liver cancer. The cancer was called Cholangiocarsinoma. My mother-in-law wasn’t the healthiest person I knew. She smoked about 2 packs of cigarettes a day and rarely went to the doctors, but to my understanding people who drank a lot were more likely to get that type of cancer. Her lungs weren’t in the best condition but they were ok. We didn’t get why her?
 
Due to the location of the tumor surgery wasn’t allowed. So chemotherapy and radiation were her only options. The type of cancer she had moved rapidly. When she was diagnosed she was already in stage four. This means the cancer had already spread. She was given a year to live. In the midst of her chemotherapy she had a stroke, and everything went downhill from there. She never returned home. My mother-in-law went from hospitals, to rehabilitation centers and back to hospitals.

  She was sent to a rehabilitation center because the stroke caused her to lose movement on her entire left side. The rehabilitation center she was assigned to appeared to be very nice. We got along with everyone and had a good time there. We even began to see improvement. My mother-in-law was lifting her left leg! With time we noticed that my mother-in-law was very withdrawn. She wasn’t acting like herself. When we would visit all she would do was sleep and moan from the pain. At this point she had lost so much weight and her stomach was bulging from the tumor growing. We didn’t understand why she was regressing. “Researchers and regulators have known that nursing homes are prone to use antipsychotic drugs as a crutch to control patients” (Chu). They were giving her medication she did not need to sedate her without our consent. Our family believes this eventually led to her sudden death.

           
After receiving that medication her progress declined. She was admitted into hospice care. The day after being admitted she fell into a coma. She passed away three short days later on January 22, 2014. Her death occurred five days before this semester started, one day after her oldest foster child turned 13, one day before her other foster child turned 12, and almost five years to the day that her mother past away. This Saturday makes it one month since she passed away. 

My professor gave me a suggested topic of art and music in our city which I love and may write about in the following week, but the one month anniversary(if I may call it that) of her passing this weekend weighs heavy on my heart and on my mind. She was an amazing lady that was taken away too soon.

Rest in peace.

Work Citied

Chu, Elbert. “Investigation: How NYC Nursing Homes Drug Seniors Into Submission”. www.gothamgazette.com. Feb 25, 2013. N.p. Web. February 20, 2014

"World Cancer Day"www.cdc.gov. February 3,2013. N.p. Web. February 20, 2014