My mother was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in March of 2007. After about 8 months of chemotherapy and radiation, she underwent a masectomy and reconstruction of one breast just a few days before Christmas that year.
2 years later, we were informed that her breast cancer (which we thought she beat) had metastaszied in her brain, causing 3 new tumors to grow. Again, she underwent chemotherapy and an all-over brain radiation treatment to prevent more tumors from growing and to kill the ones already there. At that point, her doctors gave her 3-7 years to spend with us. Because there were no chemotherapy drugs that pass through the blood-brain barrier, and you can only submit your brain to that much radiation once, there wasn't anything they could do to prevent more from growing.
In November of 2011, she underwent Gamma Knife surgery (high frequency radiation to the infected tumors only) to try and kill off the tumors that were in her brain, and starting to grow again.
Just this last November, she started experiencing symptoms of tumor growth. In January 2014, she underwent a craniotomy to remove one of the tumors, so her doctors could biopsy and find out whether it was new growth, or radiation necrosis (basically, dead tumor cells from her original surgery). She spent 28 days in the hospital, 14 in ICU and 14 in a high intensity rehabilitation clinic to get back the use of her arms, legs and brain function.
She came home on Feburary 12, 2014 and is still undergoing outpatient physical therapy, occuptional therapy and speech therapy. In early March, after a routine MRI, we were informed by her Oncologist that the 2 remaining tumors had again started to grow.
In one week, she is going to start on a new chemotherapy drug that has shown some success in some patients of passing through the blood-brain barrier (kind of a Hail Mary at this point). Based on how this new medication works, her doctors have given her 6 months -1 year left to spend with us.
Her last wish, is to take her husband, her 4 daughters (and their spouses) and her 4 grandchildren to Disneyland while she is still healthy enough to enjoy it.
