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malignant pleural effusion and mean girls
Feb. 2nd, 2008 10:02 amWell, it's back. My mom's cancer. Apparently. Last Friday (1/25) she had a CT scan and it showed there was a big build up of fluid in the pleural space of her right lung. The one that had the lower lobe removed. And there was cavitation in the area of the upper right lobe where she had a wedge resection done to remove a tumor. So the doc wanted her to come in Monday for thoracentesis (when they stick a long needle into you so they can draw off the fluid).
She had the thoracentesis Monday. They removed about a liter of fluid, which we then brought to the doctor's appointment in the afternoon, and he sent it right off to Pathology.
Wednesday we paged the doc's assistants (two RNs) to find out the pathology results. He said Monday, however, he was going to proceed as if it was cancerous because 80% of the time, these pleural effusions have cancer cells in them.
So she started her new chemo -- a drug called Tarceva -- Tuesday 1/29. Actually she was at the doctor's office all damn day. And I was with her, which put the kibosh on going to work that night. Not that I cared. I missed a lot of work.
I became suicidally depressed, too. But that actually had happened before my mom's CT scan on Friday. I want to say "I hate my job" but I don't hate my job. I hate a lot of the women I work with, because for some unknown reason, they have decided they don't like me (though I've never done anything to any of them, ever -- why would I? I'm a new nurse. I need all the advice I can get from experienced nurses). So I'm on the outside, not fitting in. As usual.
( pathetic ramble on the 'Mean Girls'-like way grown women in their 40s and 50s treat a newcomer they've decided they don't like, who is me )
I liken the viciousness of women in female dominated professions like nursing (and teaching, I've been told by my younger sister who teaches high school) to that phrase about politics in academia -- that it's so vicious because the stakes are so low.
I wonder if I got hired at the VA if I'd have more male co-workers. One can only hope.
ETA:
In the meantime, my mom is taking the Tarceva daily. It's $3700/month if you don't have insurance. My mom's insurance co-pay for it is $22. Which is amazing, considering that her Protonix (for GERD) costs about $250/month, and her co-pay for that is $88. The complexities and illogic of insurance co-pays and what they will and won't cover are beyond me.
So, the main side effect thus far has been diarrhea. Slight nausea. But my mom hasn't experienced anything terrible yet. Oh, and her skin itches like crazy on her forehead. The doc told us that people who get a rash from Tarceva tend to respond to the drug -- 9 out of 10 times. (The response rate, total, is about 20-some percent. Not really good, but...)
So, we're hoping my mom will get the skin rash. As weird as that sounds. Because in this case rash=yay it's working.
She had the thoracentesis Monday. They removed about a liter of fluid, which we then brought to the doctor's appointment in the afternoon, and he sent it right off to Pathology.
Wednesday we paged the doc's assistants (two RNs) to find out the pathology results. He said Monday, however, he was going to proceed as if it was cancerous because 80% of the time, these pleural effusions have cancer cells in them.
So she started her new chemo -- a drug called Tarceva -- Tuesday 1/29. Actually she was at the doctor's office all damn day. And I was with her, which put the kibosh on going to work that night. Not that I cared. I missed a lot of work.
I became suicidally depressed, too. But that actually had happened before my mom's CT scan on Friday. I want to say "I hate my job" but I don't hate my job. I hate a lot of the women I work with, because for some unknown reason, they have decided they don't like me (though I've never done anything to any of them, ever -- why would I? I'm a new nurse. I need all the advice I can get from experienced nurses). So I'm on the outside, not fitting in. As usual.
( pathetic ramble on the 'Mean Girls'-like way grown women in their 40s and 50s treat a newcomer they've decided they don't like, who is me )
I liken the viciousness of women in female dominated professions like nursing (and teaching, I've been told by my younger sister who teaches high school) to that phrase about politics in academia -- that it's so vicious because the stakes are so low.
I wonder if I got hired at the VA if I'd have more male co-workers. One can only hope.
ETA:
In the meantime, my mom is taking the Tarceva daily. It's $3700/month if you don't have insurance. My mom's insurance co-pay for it is $22. Which is amazing, considering that her Protonix (for GERD) costs about $250/month, and her co-pay for that is $88. The complexities and illogic of insurance co-pays and what they will and won't cover are beyond me.
So, the main side effect thus far has been diarrhea. Slight nausea. But my mom hasn't experienced anything terrible yet. Oh, and her skin itches like crazy on her forehead. The doc told us that people who get a rash from Tarceva tend to respond to the drug -- 9 out of 10 times. (The response rate, total, is about 20-some percent. Not really good, but...)
So, we're hoping my mom will get the skin rash. As weird as that sounds. Because in this case rash=yay it's working.