Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about ypur mother, she's in my prayers.   My sister had advanced stages of cervical cancer.  At one point she had a 60-40percent chance of living.  Her cervical cancer got way out of hand as she let it go far too long without getting check ups, so it's good your mom found hers early.  My sis had lots of radiaiton and chemo treatments.  At one point the doctors thought to give her a hysterectomy but have sinced changed their minds.  The tumor in her cervix has went into remission and that's a good sign.  Be real careful and ask lots of questions to the doc about your mom getting the hysterectomy.  I understand the reason some doctors don't operate on patients is that they r so vulnerable with having cancer that once opend up the cancer can spread even more.  But if she goes into remission then there's no reason for her to be opened up.  My sis' radiation was ok but she felt burining and stinging sensations in her abdomen and cervix area(but tolerable)...she had chemo as well and did not lose any hair on her head but below, yes(obviously).  It made her nauseated and not hungry so a good thing for cancer patients to have to make sure they r getting nutrition is "ensure), can buy at at local drug stores usually and it's good for cancer patients.  Cranberry tea seemed to soothe my sisters tummy aswell.  The chemo and radiation drains tons and tons of energy so your mom might sleep for a long long time after treatments and it's up to the family to watch closely over her, making sure she gets enpugh fluids.  I'd have to wake my sis up in the middle of the night tomake her drink the ensure cuz all she wanted to do was sleep and lost big appetite.  Keep a watch on weight loss, radiation causes weight loss.  Carol(my sister) went from 120lbs down to 80pounds, not good.  It'll take a good year for her to put the weight and strength back in her system.  Make sure when/if she has chemo that someone sits with her especially the first 5 minutes they give her the chemo.  Carol's chemo had been upped to a stronger dose and because the other chemo treatments went well, the nurses gave her a larger dose and walked away.  Carol had a terrible allergic reation and started choking, the doctors had to come in and give her a shot to make her throat swelling go down.  Needless tosay it traumatized her.  She was left by herself and started choking far too long, so a family member or nurse should stay with her for the first 5 minutes then if her body is tolerating the chemo, u can walk down and grab ur mom a sandwich or whatever.  The whole cancer thing is terribly stressful on the cancer patient and family as well.  Pray, meditate and take deep breaths and all will be well.  Your mom, I'm sure will pull through it but u and family have to be strong thruought the process.  It's extrememly trying, I can't express how much stress it is for everyone involved.  But she's ypur mom and needs all the love and care she can have from you.  My sis is doing better and still has a few more treatments.  Take care, god bless u and family and I wish you all the very best!

Peace,

Cookie

dthrower1 <dthrower1@...> wrote: