This is the story of our family’s journey with cancer.
My mother, Barbara Blevins Thibodeaux, had been healthy and living on her own, taking care of my disabled brother for the past 5 years. She also enjoyed and held a demanding, high stress job as a Senior Project Manager. My mother always made sure to keep up with her health and yearly checkups. She started having severe headaches every day, which went on for two months. She just kept on going, thinking it was a sinus thing. Finally she went to her primary care doctor (whom she had been seeing for several years). He ignored the complaint of the headache until she asked while being given maintenance prescriptions at the end of the visit, and was given a sample of a nose spray and Ibuprofin. The following week, she was scheduled to move back to her house in Lacombe. She could not even walk straight. She went back to the doctor, only to be given antibiotics for a sinus infection, only because she suggested it might help. These did not help at all, but she still went to work, and watched as we all worked on the move…something she had never done before, having always been an active participant in the household activities. Finally, we had to take her to the doctor as she could not drive or even walk on her own. Again, the doctor blew it off, saying he would treat it as a migraine, and gave her migraine meds. He would not even listen to us when we tried to explain that this was NOT like her at all, and something was wrong! Two days later, we insisted that she go to the ER, and we went to the Lacombe Heart Hospital. The first thing they did was a CT Scan, and then an MRI. Within 2 hours, she was being transported via ambulance to Ocshner in New Orleans for surgery on a brain tumor! They said that if she had not come to the ER when she did, she would not have lived much longer as the tumor was blocking the flow of fluid from the brain to the spine. It was an awful two weeks, but she made it through, and they determined that they got the entire tumor. Unfortunately, it was malignant, and was a tumor that had moved from someplace else in her body. They then had to look for the primary site of the cancer. What they found was a large 13 cm tumor on her ovary, (the size of a baby head), but because it is so rare for a tumor to masticate directly from the ovary to the brain, they were hesitant to go forward. (There have only been about 600 reported cases like hers worldwide!) So, in the meantime, I had a job offer in Houston, so we decided to move there so that she could get treatment at MD Anderson. (We have seen God’s hand throughout this whole journey!) Off we went to Houston! Both my family, and my brother’s family…we rented a large house and moved three families within two weeks. Mom had the master suite downstairs, and we all had rooms upstairs (with our 4 pit bulls and 2 cats!). My sister in Birmingham and her family came to help as often as possible, as she is not in good health herself.
Within two weeks, mom started on chemo…massive doses every three weeks to try to shrink the Stage 4 tumor before she could have surgery. After the first three sessions, tests showed some shrinkage, but not much. (She also developed a blood clot and has been on Lovenox injections twice a day for 6 months now.) The team of doctors met and determined that surgery would not increase her survival rate, and strongly recommended against it. She went into another three months of treatment with similar results. By this time, she was so weak, she could not be left alone at all. We met with her doctor, and we all agreed that she would not be able to handle any further chemo treatments. The doctor was understanding and supportive, and prescribed a pill for her to take daily to prevent her body from creating any estrogen, as the tumor is estrogen based. She is to take it for three months, and have tests again in February to see if it helped. He could not give us a prognosis, or time-line of how long she has. He did talk about Hospice at some point. We just cannot accept this!
So, we are in the middle of this treatment, and have been researching other options. She started a crazy veggie diet that had her crying when she had to eat it. Horrible. There are many “alternative” treatments out there, and they are all scary. But, insurance covers none of them. We have decided on one we all feel will give her a chance. We will start with it as soon as we can get things in place. That is why I am doing this…it is very expensive, and any help we can get to help with the expenses will be so greatly appreciated!
God Bless,
Brandi Ward
My mother, Barbara Blevins Thibodeaux, had been healthy and living on her own, taking care of my disabled brother for the past 5 years. She also enjoyed and held a demanding, high stress job as a Senior Project Manager. My mother always made sure to keep up with her health and yearly checkups. She started having severe headaches every day, which went on for two months. She just kept on going, thinking it was a sinus thing. Finally she went to her primary care doctor (whom she had been seeing for several years). He ignored the complaint of the headache until she asked while being given maintenance prescriptions at the end of the visit, and was given a sample of a nose spray and Ibuprofin. The following week, she was scheduled to move back to her house in Lacombe. She could not even walk straight. She went back to the doctor, only to be given antibiotics for a sinus infection, only because she suggested it might help. These did not help at all, but she still went to work, and watched as we all worked on the move…something she had never done before, having always been an active participant in the household activities. Finally, we had to take her to the doctor as she could not drive or even walk on her own. Again, the doctor blew it off, saying he would treat it as a migraine, and gave her migraine meds. He would not even listen to us when we tried to explain that this was NOT like her at all, and something was wrong! Two days later, we insisted that she go to the ER, and we went to the Lacombe Heart Hospital. The first thing they did was a CT Scan, and then an MRI. Within 2 hours, she was being transported via ambulance to Ocshner in New Orleans for surgery on a brain tumor! They said that if she had not come to the ER when she did, she would not have lived much longer as the tumor was blocking the flow of fluid from the brain to the spine. It was an awful two weeks, but she made it through, and they determined that they got the entire tumor. Unfortunately, it was malignant, and was a tumor that had moved from someplace else in her body. They then had to look for the primary site of the cancer. What they found was a large 13 cm tumor on her ovary, (the size of a baby head), but because it is so rare for a tumor to masticate directly from the ovary to the brain, they were hesitant to go forward. (There have only been about 600 reported cases like hers worldwide!) So, in the meantime, I had a job offer in Houston, so we decided to move there so that she could get treatment at MD Anderson. (We have seen God’s hand throughout this whole journey!) Off we went to Houston! Both my family, and my brother’s family…we rented a large house and moved three families within two weeks. Mom had the master suite downstairs, and we all had rooms upstairs (with our 4 pit bulls and 2 cats!). My sister in Birmingham and her family came to help as often as possible, as she is not in good health herself.
Within two weeks, mom started on chemo…massive doses every three weeks to try to shrink the Stage 4 tumor before she could have surgery. After the first three sessions, tests showed some shrinkage, but not much. (She also developed a blood clot and has been on Lovenox injections twice a day for 6 months now.) The team of doctors met and determined that surgery would not increase her survival rate, and strongly recommended against it. She went into another three months of treatment with similar results. By this time, she was so weak, she could not be left alone at all. We met with her doctor, and we all agreed that she would not be able to handle any further chemo treatments. The doctor was understanding and supportive, and prescribed a pill for her to take daily to prevent her body from creating any estrogen, as the tumor is estrogen based. She is to take it for three months, and have tests again in February to see if it helped. He could not give us a prognosis, or time-line of how long she has. He did talk about Hospice at some point. We just cannot accept this!
So, we are in the middle of this treatment, and have been researching other options. She started a crazy veggie diet that had her crying when she had to eat it. Horrible. There are many “alternative” treatments out there, and they are all scary. But, insurance covers none of them. We have decided on one we all feel will give her a chance. We will start with it as soon as we can get things in place. That is why I am doing this…it is very expensive, and any help we can get to help with the expenses will be so greatly appreciated!
God Bless,
Brandi Ward