My story :)

My name is Jennifer. I am 20 and my mother was diagnosed with IBC a little over a year ago. She was sick since I was a kid. She was in pain for years and went to numerous doctors and no one could tell her what was wrong with her. She was finally diagnosed with Lyme Disease and Hep a and b. She was starting to get better, we actually went shopping, something we hadn't done together since I was in elementary school. Then in Feb of 2009 she called me into her room and showed me her breast. It was red and swollen and the nipple was inverted. I was so scared. I knew it was bad. She went to her Infectious disease dr and he told her it was just an infection but after a month of being on antibiotics she wasn't getting better. I finally talked her into getting a mammogram . Still nothing. She went to my OBGYN and he was the one to diagnose her. She went to a horrible oncologist. She claimed she was handling multiple IBC cases. She took 2 months to get my mom any kind of treatment. While my mothers breast was still swollen and extremely painful she had a double mastectomy, the cancer was only found on the left side but she wanted to do a double just to be certain it would not spread to her other breast. The mastectomy was a fatal mistake. Less than a month later the cancer hd spread to her chest wall. 

my mother started complaining of headaches soon after the surgery. Her dr just told her it was tension headaches and gave her pain pills. My mother went to radiation the next week or her first round on her chest wall. The drive to the radiologist was horrible.. 2 hrs everyday. The radiologist ordered a ct scan after the first visit because of how bad her headaches were getting ( her oncologist still believed it was tension headaches and said the scan would be useless). The ct scan was in the same building as her Oncologist's office. As soon as the scan was over they sent us to the oncologist office.. no explanation as to why. she didnt have an appointment until the next day.They put us in a little room and immediately  hooked her up to an iv. no one would tell us why or what was going on... just that they were told to by her dr. the dr sent a nurse in to tell us that the cancer had spread to her brain and that it had basically taken her brain over. I was so mad that the dr didnt have the nerve to tell her. A few min later the dr came in and was talking to me. She didnt even speak to my mom. she kept asking me if i was ok. I told her no, that if she was a half decent dr then she would have given my mom the scan when she first started complaining about the headaches. I am still mad about that cow of a dr. I found her a dif oncologist... the only problem.... it was at the same place as the radiologist so i got to drive even more with my poor sick mom who couldnt stand riding in cars anymore. This dr was great. He took care of her up until she had developed pneumonia and just couldnt beat it. we put her in hospice 2 weeks before she passed away.She started forgetting us. it was horrible. she forgot everyone about a week before she passed but came back to us for the last few days. The day before she did pass we took her to the hospital because she asked us to... she was drowning in her own body. I was holding her up trying to help her breath. the whole time she was saying oh god oh god oh god. it was the most horrible thing I ha ever gone through. She was on a ventilator for the rest of the night and the next morning she passed away. January 29, 2010, she was 46 years old.. My mom never gave up. She was strong and was laughing the entire horrible year. Make sure you have a good oncologist.. i think if she would have to begin with this would be a completely different post. I miss my mom so much. Oh I found out that I am pregnant about a week after she passed away.. horrible timing.