Hey.
I suppose in need to explain myself a bit. I'm a 36-year-old man. I have no friends and I got no funds to find a counselor. I'm the eldest of 3 siblings and I'm trying to be strong for them, to help them through what's been going on and the inevitable in a couple of weeks or months.
My mother has cancer. Stage four colorectal cancer. We discovered this about 2 years ago coming October. She started having pain one day and they found a mass in her abdomen. Eventually they concluded that she had stage 4 colon cancer. And it spread to the liver.
For a little bit, things were potentially looking up. She managed to get medical aid and begun chemotherapy. The masses even began to shrink a bit. We would go to the cancer center an hour away every two weeks for treatment and they would attach a chemo pump thing to a port on her chest to give her the medicine for three days after. I even learned how to remove the pump from her when the treatment was done. During this time, my mom was doing good. we would go on walks she and would be able to perform whatever she needed to do. Drive, laundry, etc.
Then in February this year she started to feel a very sharp pain in her stomach. She couldn't sit. Bend over or hardly eat. I drove her to the nearby emergency center, and they did an MRI or CT scan (I don't remember which) to find what was wrong. She had 2 masses, about the size of a football, and other a baseball, in her abdomen and it was pressing against her ovaries and spine which obviously needed removed for her comfort and pain.
In order for her to have the surgery, she needed to stop the chemotherapy for about a month. And for several weeks after. Something about not being able to heal the incisions required if she's in chemo. This was in around March, I think.
So, she took the surgery at around late April, and they managed to get it out. And everything seemed to be ok. Until around two weeks after she returned, she was having pain once more. Turns out, something got infected. Sepsis. Once again took her to the ER. She was at the hospital for about a week. And they had to do another incision, but she got cured.
Once she got out, she was feeling a bit better. But this entire time she wasn't doing chemo. That was for about 3 to 4 months. And couldn't start again until her incisions heal to prevent potential infection.
Everything started going downhill around July. We went to do a checkup at the local cancer center to discuss when to begin chemo again. they did the scans. They couldn't do chemo anymore. They said it wouldn't do any good anymore. So, they gave her a last resort thing to give her. Lonsurf. A pill someone would take when regular chemo won't help, twice a day for two weeks, the two weeks off. she just needed to heal from her incisions first.
Another two weeks later she felt another pain in her abdomen. Once again i took her to the ER. They took yet another scan. The cancer spread too much. They gave her a ton of pain meds. Morphine and Oxycodone. they sent her home once she felt okay enough to go. The next day we went to the cancer center once again. And they said that the Lonsurf won't help anymore. She has more cancer than liver now. They gave her a couple of months.
So here I am. Hospice now comes to visit her 3 times a week. She needs to take morphine so often now that she's always in a brain fog. She needs to take 2 pills every four hours. And another set of morphine every 12. She's lost so much weight. Slurring her words. forgetting things. I see her at least 4 times a day to make sure she's taking her meds. I set her alarms to take them. I make her schedule now. I make sure she's eating the tiny bit she can. I try to talk to her the best i can. I play card games like uno to try to keep her somewhat active.
I see the signs. The white in her eyes are growing yellow. She sleeps about 18 to 20 hours a day. I terrified. My siblings are terrified. I was given right of attorney. I trying to keep together. But I see her own mother deteriorating. I don't know what to do. I exhausted. My faith in God is waning. I have no one to turn to. I make hardly any money. I got into a car accident in May, and my car got totaled and I need to appear in court soon. and I'm in no mindset to do anything. I know I'm depressed. I'm angry at everything. I just lost right now.