Hi Everybody,
First off, I'd just like to say that I think this forum is so fantastic... it is so good to know that there are places to get advice and support for people dealing with some pretty scary situations!
Now about me... I'm a 21 yr old male from Sydney, Australia. You'll have to excuse my lack of knowledge on terminology etc, as I'm still learning! My mother is 59 yrs old, and was diagnosed with DCIS in June 2006. She opted to have a double mastectomy. Once the results where determined from the mastectomy, the doctors decided to remove her Lymph Nodes also as they were worried the cancer may have begun to spread. Thankfully it hadn't, and that was that! She didn't have any chemo or radiation. She has since been fine, apart from a few issues stemming from the removal of the lymph nodes, but nothing too serious.
A few weeks ago, she went for her regular Pap-Smear exam. The results came back as positive for abnormal cells, indicating cervical cancer. Last week she underwent a procedure to determine exactly what the abnormal cells where... and we are now waiting for the results. I'm a total wreck at the moment... she's been so lucky through her whole cancer odeal, and I'm just worried her luck has run out. She doesn't really talk about how she feels about it all - she just says "I'll just deal with whatever comes"... I guess that's all she can do, but I'm just worried she's bottling everything up.
I was just wondering if anybody here has any advice on how I can support her? I just feel so helpless, and I can't even imagine what must be going through her mind. I'm trying to educate myself the best I can - but I guess I'm finding it hard to put myself in her shoes.
I hope this all makes sense... it all looks like a bit of a incoherent mess at the moment! I'm not too good with all the medical terms, but I've done my best... Thanks so much for your help 