…is for my mom to beat cancer!!
This Wednesday (Christmas Eve) is hopefully her final treatment for radiation and chemo.
The past several weeks have been very difficult for her. The daily radiation caused some burns along the scarred tissue on her neck. The radiation plus chemo has caused a lot of mucus formation that she’s constantly trying to cough out, often resulting in her having to vomit to get it all out. Her throat is very sore from the that plus the stomach acid wearing away on the esophagus. It’s really difficult for me to see and hear her go through this all day and night.
For the anatomically-informed/PT folks: The surgery a couple months ago damaged some nerves, so she’s had decreased arm strength. She has trouble with shoulder abduction to 90˚, and it hurts to hold it there. She showed me yesterday a hard protrusion on the top of her shoulder. At first it seemed like possibly a really bad knot in a muscle, but it was too hard, and moved with arm movements. I figured out it was the superior angle of her scapula! This means her entire scapula is abnormally elevated or downwardly rotated. WHY? I don’t know exactly. I’m sure it’s from muscle imbalance somewhere due to reduced use of her arm and neck since surgery. As a Student PTA, I’m very curious to find out the reason when we are able to ask a doctor that knows or a physical therapist!! I guess this means DPT transition program should be a future goal.
Anyways, thanks everyone for continued thoughts and prayers. She’s really the strongest person I know, and I know these few inconvenient months of treatments will be worth it in the long run!
// kuotient 