If your mother had a 30 year drinking problem where she drank everyday, it is indeed possible that stopping the alcohol caused her some temporary memory problems. Going cold turkey off nicotine could do that as well. Pain killers (Is that what you were referring to with "the oxy"?) can also make make you muddled. I suspect the combination of all 3 may have made her really confused for a while. But really none of that is the doctor's fault.

I'm actually surprised they did the radiation if she went into it still drinking and smoking and didn't "start to stop" until "the end of her radiation". That's setting up a situation where she probably had all the pain and suffering and a far less likely chance of it working. But that's not the doctor's fault. It's a sign your mother was really addicted.

And for the dcotor to say after treatment that the "bump in her throat" was a yeast infection may have been because she (the doc) couldn't feel a bump--and to do a scan so soon after treatment would have resulted, quite possibly in a false positive. Still, though I'm not a doctor, I can understand your frustration that it turned out to be a recurrence and she dismissed it.

I'm really sorry for your loss. I just lost my father recently and I know how hard it is to lose a parent. But overall, some of this sounds to me like the recurrence could have been a result of your mother engaging in the behavior, during treatment, that caused the cancer in the first place, hard though I'm sure that is for you to hear. IMO, there's nothing you've said here that makes me think the doctor was totally incompetent. But I'm not a dcotor here myself. So I hope the main thing you can understand in what I'm saying is I am really sorry you lost your mother so soon after she went through the treatment.

Nelie


SCC(T2N0M0) part.glossectomy & neck dissect 2/9/05 & 2/25/05.33 IMRT(66 Gy),2 Cisplatin ended 06/03/05.Stage I breast cancer treated 2/05-11/05.Surgery to remove esophageal stricture 07/06, still having dilatations to keep esophagus open.Dysphagia. "When you're going through hell, keep going"