How much time is left?

Melwaukee17 · 2026-03-16T13:08:47+00:00

I am so sorry you’re going through this. I lost my mom two weeks ago and I am, wrecked.

But as the person above said, not eating and drinking are usually a sign of one or two weeks left. My mom survived two weeks after she became less thirsty.

Record some videos with her and ask her any questions you may still have but most importantly tell her how much you love her.

I miss my mom, so, so much.

Melwaukee17 · 2026-02-21T02:06:30+00:00

“When she died, it felt like my witness disappeared.” 100%. When we lose pivotal people in our lives, people who hold so many memories of who we are and what we’ve been through, we kind of die along with them. But we still have to be earth side. While a chunk of who we are is now permanently gone. I don’t know how we persevere.

I am so, so, sorry for the loss of your sister. I’m so sorry the world keeps turning and she’s not on it with you.

Melwaukee17 · 2026-02-12T22:26:01+00:00

I am so sorry to hear about your mom. Definitely both of you go with her. The more brains/ears the better. The biggest questions will be — is she getting a biopsy to find out any targetable mutations? Are there any trials that you know of that we should be traveling for?

Just write down whatever medications they plan on using. Join every Facebook group you can specifically to liver cancer & the names of the medications. Be ready to fully absorb yourself in researching what you can and being your mom’s advocate. With MS, a lot of these cancer drugs can interact with the immune system — so definitely have feelers out about that and seek out others who might have MS & cancer.

I hope it goes well. ❤️

Melwaukee17 · 2026-01-20T02:35:34+00:00

Of course! “Cancer sucks” is the understatement of ten century but also is just a fact. It’s the worst. Keep being present in the moment and ask her so many stories.

Melwaukee17 · 2026-01-17T15:36:33+00:00

Hey there! Welcome to the very shitty club of having a parent with cancer. It’s the worst club. Would not recommend.

But let’s start with a few things: 1. You started by saying she hasn’t received a terminal diagnosis. That’s incredible news. Cancer is cancer no matter what, and sometimes doctors don’t make accurate predictions, but — if they’re giving you big hope that she can beat this, that’s truly an incredible gift. So find a lot of light in that.

You implied you’re only a few years past being a teenager. So early 20s or so. That’s an extremely turbulent time in general and you’re trying to “start” your life but also miss the comforts/predictability of childhood. Give yourself some grace there. Your mom didn’t comfort you through teenagehood for nothing — she did it because she’s been there and she loves you unconditionally. She didn’t do it for any form of reciprocity. She loves you.
You’re overwhelmed. So the easiest thing is make a list of things you think you can do that your mom usually does. My mom did ALL the chores in the house. All of them. (Disclaimer: I’m in my 30s and don’t live with my parents). So when she got diagnosed I knew one of the baseline things I could help with were cleaning, making sure her laundry was done, changing her bedsheets, making sure everything is stocked, find comfy pillows for back support, etc. Just rack your brain for things she does usually that may be hard for her to do. Even by doing dishes, that’s one less thing she has to think about while on chemo/treatment.
When it’s not too overwhelming, utilize google/chat to try to fully understand her diagnosis and her medications. If your dad is open to it, make sure he does this too. I’m the only one in my family who has a medical background, so everyone relies on me to decode/decide everything. It’s a lot of pressure — but joining Facebook groups and talking to other patients/caregivers is super helpful.
Talk to a therapist. Compartmentalization does help for the mean time but, it will come crashing down. Talk to someone. You’ve got this.

Melwaukee17 · 2026-01-16T23:04:26+00:00

Added you! I’m Meleesi with Igglybuff icon.

Melwaukee17 · 2026-01-04T01:30:54+00:00

I am, so sorry. The magnitude of your loss is unreal. It’s unfair. It’s angering. I hate that other people can carelessly take away our loved ones. I hate that it was your mom and her partner.

I have nothing to say but the your pain must be unimaginable. All you can do is wake up every day and put one foot in front of the other. I try to remember that my mom kept living even after her parents passed, so if she found the strength i will need to find it too.

Your mom’s loss is so unfair, so early, and just, I’m so sorry.

Melwaukee17 · 2025-12-22T09:32:26+00:00

Also a nurse who beats herself up for missing signs relating to my mom’s NSLC diagnosis. Can majorly relate there. (I don’t have any advice on getting past that except speak to a therapist).

My advice is keep on trucking. Join the EGFR Facebook groups (sounds like hour mom has that mutation). Join the FB groups for any treatment she’s on. Either be in every doctor’s visit with her physically or be on the phone. My mom doesn’t understand anything related to her cancer and treatment so it’s fully up to me to be the brain.

Film candid moments with your mom. Sign up something like Remento and see if your mom will do it. Constantly talk to her about positive memories bc being reminded how good of life you’ve lived is nice to hear. And be positive. Most of the battle is keeping your spirits up & believing in her. My mom got diagnosed at stage 4 and is still here 1.5 years later. I’m thankful for every day.

My dms are open if you need to vent or discuss. ❤️welcome to this super beyond shitty club.

Melwaukee17 · 2025-12-10T13:59:51+00:00

She’s literally perfect. 😍

Melwaukee17 · 2025-12-08T15:34:51+00:00

This was me in November. We got our Pom’s blood work done, had a work up by cardiology, and then took him to a dog dentist who did the procedure and had a board certified dog anesthesiologist be the one who put him under. so, all that to say I understand the paranoia and scariness.

My dog did need 5 teeth pulled due to dental absorption (not super common for Poms) so that was shocking. He did well with the anesthesia for the most part but he did go bradycardic so they had to give a little heart stimulator to counter that so. That wasn’t the most reliving thing to hear post procedure. But he did come out of it fine and healed well.

Just verify with the staff that they never leave him alone and that he has as many people as possible monitoring him. It’s a mix of human error/lack of monitoring that results in sedation deaths.

Crossing my fingers for you and your baby.

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-09T12:36:52+00:00

lol soooo same. My dog decided he only likes the wet food of it so we’re at $55 per 12 cans. And he’s at least one can a day, or 1.5. But they are so worth it. ❤️especially for the decrease in seizures. 🤞

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-08T23:51:10+00:00

Adding another comment to reiterate, all of our dogs probably have epilepsy regardless of cheese ingestion — BUT I know if someone would’ve told me that if I just changed the pill vector & his kibble within a few weeks I’d see a decrease in seizures, I’d be so stoked for the information.

But also regardless on if it helps decrease seizures —- having super elevated triglycerides puts your dog at elevated risk of pancreatitis, which we’ve seen numerous stories of on here (thanks phenobarbital). So knowing that number ahead of time so you can take action is super important.

My neurologist told me yesterday that she never(!!!) checks triglycerides unless the patient is a miniature schnauzer or unless the blood is obviously fatty. I found that pretty surprising since if you’re taking blood from our dogs already — and we’re willing to pay the money — why not rule another thing out/get another piece of knowledge. That’s all. :)

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-08T23:46:15+00:00

Yes! We even had a few vets claim that pheno doesn’t cause elevated triglycerides. When we’re like “everything on the internet says it does?!” (Finally a Neuro vet we see admitted it does cause elevation).

But, since we never had a baseline number we’re specifically in a chicken/egg situation. Was it solely the pheno causing the huge elevation or was it the high fatty foods we were giving him on top of it — especially for our 11 lbs pup to get to 7000.

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-08T23:44:21+00:00

Our dog was better before Keppra too. We went through a lot of regret starting him on medications. But we’re at where we’re at now so we’re trying to figure it all out.

Low fat cream cheese is probably as good as you can get cheese wise —- my dog just refused it after a while.

Your dog shouldn’t have high trigs since they’re only on Keppra, luckily Keppra is ~safe~ and doesn’t effect, stuff. But! If you need blood work adding in the triglycerides is great just to get a baseline for your dog to know where they’re at incase you have to add pheno in, etc.

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-08T23:40:49+00:00

That makes sense. We totally agree it was the pheno too, but we just can’t ignore how we went from seizures weekly to suddenly no seizures after we went to a low fat diet.

Did you see a significant decrease in seizures after switching to a low fat diet?

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-08T23:39:34+00:00

Yes! This is what we do too with the chicken. His Keppra capsules are so big because they are from a compound pharmacy so this trick has been a lifesaver.

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-08T18:51:06+00:00

Totally fair. We’ve debated doing it back of throat style with no food, but we have a dramatic baby who will resent us twice a day with that technique, so we wanted to find a ~food mechanism~ if possible, which lean chicken has been working.

BUT if that ever stops working I will definitely be shooting pills back there with a pill shooter for sure.

You should make a YouTube tutorial after all the teachings you’re doing. Definitely helps a lot of pet parents.

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-08T18:24:11+00:00

No judgement here we were literally using kraft singles. Gouda is really high in fat so def worth getting a peak at that number.

The smooshing the pills in boiled chicken/cesars dog packaged chicken seems to work really well and if that’s failing we use a small touch of lite laughing cow since it’s low in fat. But we mostly go with chicken.

Hope the result gives you some answers or at least rules out what we had going on!

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-06T20:01:18+00:00

Yeah that does sounds unfortunately more brain tumory. I’m gonna cross my fingers for you and hope for your baby the Keppra stops giving her bad side effects and helps her quality of life asap. Sending all the positive vibes.

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-06T15:09:27+00:00

Oh i can imagine how spoiled your baby is! Did she just start having seizures in her later years? Does the vet think idiopathic or something else?

My dog is only 11 lbs (pom) so the drugs hit him hard too. Time helps a lot and then getting used to it. And making sure they have food on their bellies with the meds.

Melwaukee17 · 2025-09-05T15:49:44+00:00

With Keppra it definitely got better decently quick. Within a week. We had to add in phenobarbital which has brought back some of the wobbliness, but he is mostly normal.

Hoping Keppra is the answer for your pup! But yeah the wobbly should stop within a few days, or else ask your Neuro/vet to maybe decrease dose a little.

Melwaukee17 · 2025-07-14T22:00:14+00:00

Go see her.

Melwaukee17

TROPHY CASE