A Lot to Process
Yesterday we received devastating news. My mother-in-law, Dana, was told she has esophageal cancer. Last summer she started experiencing a strong pain on her abdomen below her right breast. Her blood tests came back normal. The pain soon spread across her mid-section. She initially thought it was her gall bladder but that was ruled out with an ultrasound. In mid-October the symptoms worsened to include nausea, loss of appetite, and eventually the feeling of shards of glass when burping. These symptoms continued to worsen to where the nausea was constant and she was able to tolerate fewer and fewer types of foods. She also started complaining of back pain, possibly from favoring her abdomen constantly. A CT scan in November and then an MRI in early December showed no definitive cause of her symptoms other than a thickening around some areas of her upper abdominal cavity. Her primary care doctor finally issued a referral to a gastroenterologist. It took several weeks for the