Rant required!

2009-10-20T21:51:44Z

Well! What a 48 hours we have all had!

Dad's coughing and pain was getting worse over the weekend and I finally managed to convince mum to ring the GP at 11a.m. on Sunday. Having done that she was told that all doctors had already left on there rounds so it could take 3-6 hours. Sounds dreadful, but at least some relief was in sight.

10 hours later a doctor arrived, listened to my mother talking about coughing up phlegm and prescribed anti-biotics and left. As all local out of hours pharmacies were closed my mum was handed a brown envelope - with capsules in it. Having waited 10 hours I went out and caught the doctor in the car and asked if my dad was expected to swallow them - yes was the reply. I explained that was not going to be possible with his gullet cancer - "Oh, I didn;t know this" ...I thought "%*£"*&£!!!!!!" Perhaps when we get a mac nurse this can be rectified - otherwose I don't hold out much hope for anyone who is in desperate pain and waiting for a an out of hours doctor.

So.....hadn't read/received any notes ...was it also possible that the "chest infection" diagnosis was due to lung cancer by any chance? My guess is he has not got a chest infection. He is coughing up clear mucus not coloured phlegm.

The pain was put down to "muscular" and so nothing was prescribed. To say I was hopping mad is the understatement of the year.

Today my father has had his stent put in. He had to wait from 8a.m. until 2pm on nil by mouth - and was threatened with an overnight stay due to vomiting. But managed to convince them to let him out at 7pm tonight.

At least the after effects of the anaesthetic made the vomiting and coughing relatively painfree. Not too sure about tomorrow though! Fingers crossed that a good nights sleep will also have a good effect.

I also phoned his nurse today to let her know that he is being a bit too stoic on the pain control front and she said she would see that he got something. Was not surprised that there was no new prescription for him, and that he has only had 2 paracetamols todays!

Rant over.

Looking forward to reduced symptoms and better quality of life with the stent until monday's first chemo session.

Hope everyone has had a good day today.

Stage 4 Oesophageal Cancer - mets in Liver,Lungs

2009-10-18T03:26:12Z

My father has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not sure which is the primary, but will assume for now that it is the gullet. Unfortunately it had already spread to his Liver and Lungs.

I think everyone feels more positive now that we have seen the oncologist and my dad wants to try the palliative chemotherapy. (EOX) So, in preparation for the chemo starting on Monday 26th October, he is to be fitted with a stent on tuesday. We were expecting this to only take a few hours but he has been asked to take an overnight bag. The maximum number of EOX cycles he can have will be 8.

My dad is really looking forward to having the stent. It must be hell watching people eating meals in front of you when you are limited to whizzed soups, porridge and nutritional drinks.

My current concerns are pain control and my dad's ex-military attitude to pain. He is only on dissolvable paracetamol (only started taking them last week!) but is now admitting to pain made worse by coughing. He had a flu injection yesterday so just blames it all on that. Thankfully, after a horrendous night, today it seems to be not as bad (or perhaps he is just masking it better to stop us calling a GP). He still enjoys a rum and coke - I suspect that he is not willing to give this up completely until he can't stand the pain any longer. Part of me says "fine - enjoy it while you can" (at least it has calories!) but the bigger part of me says "Fool -please don't put up with any more pain than you have to". It is very hard to watch knowing that he is in pain but refusing to let us help him.

I would love to hear of your experience of pain control beyond paracetamol, also what to expect from the stent fitting. Also if anyone has had EOX.

Cup-of-coffee

Rant required!

Stage 4 Oesophageal Cancer - mets in Liver,Lungs