Update:
So yesterday we had our consultation with the otlaryngology doctor (I believe it means an eyes, nose ears doctor). A waste of time if you ask me. He didn't tell us anything new - not that I expected him to be able to tell us anything new. He did manage to frighten Mom with his grim opinion regarding the side affects of chemo and radiation.
On the plus side, he characterized Mom's cancer at late stage I, early stage II. This is however only based on the CT scan of her head.
Afterwards, we went to the main hospital to get a CT scan of her chest. Usually, nasopharyngeal carcinoma goes from the nose to the neck and then down to the lungs. However, because there is a small chance that it can skip the neck and go down directly to the lunges, the doctors ordered another CT scan to make sure nothing is down there.
While I do hope that there's nothing in there in the lungs, I can't help but dread that there is and that this is not a stage I or stage II but rather a stage III or stage IV (when cancer has spread). I did get a glimpse of her CT scan on the computer yesterday, but that was a bad idea as I saw lots of black and white and darkened areas which of course I think they're all tumors because I have no idea what I'm looking at. I must take the image out of my mind!
The doctor said that at this point, it is quite possible that she only needs radiation rather than both radiation and chemo. She's praying that she only needs radiation as chemotherapy only makes all the side affects so much more severe. Mom says she's afraid of the pain ... not afraid of death.
I never realized how scared she was of needles. I couldn't help but laugh and tease her as the CT scanning person injected a dye into her system. Her arm was literally shaking and she was all "little kid like" saying she's scared and nervously/hysterically laughing. It was quite comical unfortunately for her. But at least it kept things light-hearted for the moment.
Never knew what cancer really meant. Now it looks like we have a family history of cancers especially on my mom side. We don't know anything about the family history on my dad's side because all his parent's family is in North Korea and they have not had any contact with them since my grandparents (my dad's parents) came to south Korea a long long time ago. This means that my sisters and I have that much more chance of getting cancer ... which is a scary prospect.
I've had a little bit of time facing the prospect of death of an immediate family member. It's a real life-moving experience and thoughts ... that's for sure.
Next: Meeting/Consultation with the radiologist who will have the results from the chest CT and a treatment plan (hopefully) - Monday October 19th.
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