surgery vs. quality of life

[Guest guest]

HI all-

My mother (age 70) was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last

november. She has also had severe rheumathoid arthritis since 1979,

and has been on prednisone pretty much the whole time. She lives in

Houston and was lucky enough to get into MD . They gave her

low levels of chemo (because of her RA) for 8 months which helped

the liver but really had little impact on her colon. In September

the CT scan showed the liver clear, but when they followed up with a

PT scan it showed several tumors in the liver. So now the doctors

are looking at surgery as an option. The prednisone use is a

concern, but otherwise they feel she will make it through the

procedure. They plan to go in and remove the blockage from her

colon, and then if everything goes well with that, the liver surgeon

would step up and remove half of the tumors in her liver. Two months

later they would go back and remove the remaining liver tumors. The

doctors have admitted the possiblity that she may not recover fully

and regain the quality of life she has now. My brother and I, who

live in Austin, wonder of the possibility of her not having sugery

and moving them closer to us (and the grandkids) and continuing

with chemo and possibly radiation. Obviously this is my mother's

decision to make, and really we can't be sure of a beneficial

outcome in either scenario, so I'm wondering- has anyone else been

faced with a decision like this? Should we voice our preference to

her (to not have surgery) or is that selfish? I'm completely at a

loss here...

thanks for reading, and God Bless-

Patty