Hey all I have been so busy with work, now that I have started back. And my kiddies are home for the summer, so I have my hands full. Any free time I have, the lake is calling my name But I do pop in every now and then and try to keep up. I miss you all terribly, but I am sure you understand my silence of late. Last week at work, we had a new admittion. She is a young 52 year old female with brest cancer, I would like to tell a little of her story, and get some responses.
"Rose" takes care of her ailing mother in her home, and has done so for over 2 years. Much time and energy is spent on her mother. Rose also has 2 teenage children to care for, and is a single mother. She also started her own business, so she would have more free time for her mom and still keep an income.
Last year Rose found a lump on her left breast.
She ignored it, because she did not have the time or money to go to the DR.
The lump grew larger.
Then the lump started to bleed, just a little, so she covered with a band aid.
Of course with mother on her death bed, she could wait until after she passed to see a DR.
Roses boyfriend popped the question, but now with mother sick, now was not the time.
The bleeding was getting worse now, so Rose went to the pharmacy. She purchased a 4inch by 4 inch gauze and started to apply daily to the "lump"
Rose did noticed that there was alot of her breast that had already disappeared, and the wound was getting much larger, but time was not on her side because everyone needed her so.
Everyday, and sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, Rose changed the bandages, NOONE KNEWOf course now she was applying abdominal dressings as well, because they were much more absorbent.
Rose started to make plans with her boyfriend for their future, when she was less busy, and her mother had passed.
But the cancer enjoyed Rose's bosy and spread to her internal organs.
Her belly got larger, and larger, and larger.
Her belly was so large her feet could not carry her anymore, thus making it difficult to care for her mother.
Rose then purchased a wheelchair and carried on with her duties the best she could.
Last week the show was over. The denial Rose had been living in was soon to fall. Her children forced her to go to the DR and get help.
When the DR took away the dressing so carefully applied by Rose's hand, he gasped at what he saw. There was a "hole" in Rose's chest, and her posterior rib cage could be seen from the front. The lung was gone, as well as almost all of the chest wall cavity on the left side. Her aorta was visible to the naked eye.
Rose was going to die soon. But she did not, and does not see this. She continues to make plans for the future with her boyfriend, and is overrun with guilt that her mother is in the same nursing home with her. She continues to strengthen her upper body so she can use a wheelchair.
I asked Rose, why did you not have a masectomy and have your breast removed? She told me, "I still may, I have not decided yet." Poor Rose, she does not realize the time to make the decision has past, she has run out of time.
What I find amazing is the human brain. We can live our lives day in and day out just living, and totally disregard things that are happening to us, if they are unpleasant. Anyone of us, would have gone straight to the DR....wouldn't we?
wendy