Hello.

This is my first time on this site, though I've been a part of the migraine community for about a year. 

I'm overwhelmed.  I'm currently living in Spain doing dissertation research, but right before I left the US, my mom was told that her agonizing sciatica which she had been battling for 5 months was not, in fact, sciatica.  It was cancer.  This was a total shock, as she has never been sick in her entire life, and no one in our family has received a cancer diagnosis that we know of.  As she entered the hospital for a week of tests, they told her they were fairly certain it was either lymphoma or multiple myeloma - not breast, lung, ovarian, or colon cancer. 

Two days into my international travel, I got a phone call that it was not a blood cancer. It was metastatic breast cancer with mets in her spine, pelvis, ribs, and skull.

She is currently on opiods, hormone therapy, and is in the middle of radiation for the spinal/pelvic mets that are causing her such constant pain.  But so far, the pain hasn't reduced at all, and she's losing her ability to walk and sleep. She is suffering from strong side effects from the radiation and the opiods,

I am trying to take things day by day.  I set up a website for them so friends could leave messages and we could share updates, I call as often as the time difference and my work will allow.  And pray constantly.  But I must confess that things are not good.  I am terrified that she is going to die while I am away....

I'm coming here because right now I need to be able to talk to people who know where I am coming from. Thanks for reading. I pray blessings and hope for you all.

~Rachel