Ford

[Guest guest]

My prayers to and his family. My mother was diagnosed with MSA

awhile back, even though she had several of the symptoms for many

years (inability to sweat, low blood pressure upon standing, etc.).

She was originally diagnosed as having Parkinson's,and put on

Sinemet, which had very limited results, and then seemed like it

wasn't working at all. More tests confirmed a diagnosis of Shy-Drager

Syndrome, or MSA. She seemed to be pretty much holding her own, and

we were hoping the worst was quite a way in the distance, and that

her age would prevent us from witnessing some of the nastier effects

of the disease (she was 69 at the time of her diagnosis). I didn't

know that much about the progression (still don't), but I figured we

would have my mom in some capacity or another for longer. Then, this

past fall, she found out she had breast cancer again. The first time

was 16 years ago, she had a lumpectomy, some chemo and then she was

fine--in remission until recently. Her cancer doctor did the same

type of procedure as the last time, and she was ok...waiting for the

results of her biopsy, and to be released from the hospital. The

biopsy results, however, showed that it was a more aggressive form of

cancer, and a mastectomy was suggested. We were all worried, but she

came out of that surgery pretty much ok, too. Her doc suggested

treating it with stronger doses of chemo. The first treatment went

well, but the second caused her to decline rapidly. I did my best to

comfort her as her hair fell out--she had been through this before. I

told her that because she had such a healthy head of hair, and not

one gray one yet, that as soon as she was done with chemo, it would

grow back in again. It never had a chance to. She was hospitalized

for 3 weeks in December, came home in time to 'celebrate' Christmas

with the family, and died 3 days later. She had to be on a feeding-

tube, she had been dehydrated, several times during the week that she

was home, she would 'go under', and my father and brother would jolt

her back into consciousness. I know I'm rambling here, but I guess

I'm still trying to understand it all and make sense of it. That is

why I joined the shy-drager group. I am truly sorry to hear about

your friend , and will be thinking and praying for him and his

family often.