Hi All,

I have been on this site many times over the past 9 months, but never officially became a member until today.

My mother passed away of oral cancer on April 22nd. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer at age 39, when I was 12 years old. Thankfully it was caught early enough... chemo, radiation, and surgery cured her for over 25 years. In 2007 it came back stage IV, however due to being hormone receptor positive, she was able to live relatively symptom free for the past 5 years. In August of 2011, she was diagnosed with early stage squamous cell oral cancer when she found a small patch in her mouth. Within 3 weeks it had tripled in size. It was removed through treatment. Surgeons were able to remove all of it, but unfortunately it had already invaded her lymph nodes. After healing from surgery, which included a trach and reconstruction from a graft taken from her arm and leg, my mother started 6 weeks of oral radiation along with 6 treatments of cistplatin (chemo). As radiation ravaged her mouth, she was forced to take a few breaks. She didn't give up though and fought her way through to the end. She finished treatments in mid January. Her doctors said protocol was to wait 12 weeks for her post-treatment pet scan. 6 weeks short of her pet scan appointment she began to feel extreme pain in her side, followed by a tumor on her rib. All downill from there... an ultrasound, chest x-ray, ct scan, and biopsy all led to an ill fate. Her ct scan results were delivered on March 23. Hospice was started 2 weeks later. She passed away on April 22nd. I didn't leave her side for a month. Hardest ordeal of my life. Hoping some of you can help me find my way through this grief and adjusting to a life without her