How the pain felt
I was a medical student
Thought it was pneumonia
It was mesothelioma
Surgery was one option
She had to decide
They made no promises
So when we found out we were desperate and the oncologist here in Lansing referred us to a specialty clinic down in Houston. We flew down there to try and find some hope and they offered us nothing. We went to a clinic in New York City. They had a surgery that they could do, a very radical surgery in which they would actually remove Mom's lung and scrape the inside of the lung cavity or the rib cage, and remove as much of the disease as possible. It is called debulking. Knowing that they would never be able to get all of it but it would be enough to buy her time. They had had people who had lived five years or more after having the surgery, which was amazing.