Hey there everyone, I hope you're well.
I've recently signed up to the MacMillan site and am very new to all this blogging! In truth, I'm not sure what I'm hoping to share or indeed to get from it...like-minded support, advice, validation that I'm not losing the plot...or maybe all of the above!
The abridged version of the situation is as follows:
Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago and had a mastectomy, lymph nodes from under her arm removed, a course of IV chemotherapy and a course of radiotherapy. She was then given the all clear that it was gone.
At one of her six-monthly follow up checks two years later, we were devastated to learn that the beast was back. This time it was secondary breast cancer in her bone (at the sternum), her lungs, her liver and her lymph nodes. Utter panic and chaos trying to process it all, as I'm sure tonnes of you on here know only too well.
After another grueling course of IV chemo and a raft of drugs, it wasn't looking good. Radiotherapy for the bone was out, as it was too close to the site of the breast radiotherapy only 18 months earlier. We were told that it wasn't cureable but they would do what they could to continue treating it.
Mum then, under the amazing care of a professor at The Beatson in Glasgow, started on chemotherapy tablets to try and shrink the tumours. She did this in conjunction with some pain management and treatment for the lymphoedema which was now on her affected 'breast' side and some meaty steroids to help her breathing out a bit.
Six months later and the chemo tablets are shrinking both the liver and the lung tumours, and keeping the bone and lymphatic ones at bay...result! But the spoiler to this is the remarkable increase in her laboured breathing. After a series of MRI scans and tests, they've found several blood clots and substantial scar tissue on both her lungs, I think this is a result of all the medication and steroids over the past couple of years. She's now on oxygen at home and has severely limited mobility and struggles to even speak long sentences without gasping for breath. One of the clots went for a jaunt to her leg a few weeks ago (ironically on my brother's wedding day) and she ended up in hospital feeling terrible.
So that's us up to date with the medical history. I can't believe the journey we've come on over the past 4 years. We (my mum, dad, brother and I) look back in amazement when we think about how we thought the initial breast cancer diagnosis was the end of the world back then...and look what we've been thru as a family since then. We're hanging in there emotionally...just about, but mum's really having some bad days. It's completely understandable but very hard to bear all the same. The feeling of being completely useless is incredible...she doesn't want to eat, she can't be bothered getting dressed, she doesn't want to go out and we don't know what to do for the best...let her spiral further down with her depression, or 'bully' her a bit more to make her. It's just not the bolshy, gregarious, larger than life mum we all know. In conjunction with this, the three ladies she went all thru her IV chemo with have all, since Christmas, lost their battle with cancer, so I just know that's in the back of her mind.
Our GP has just today assigned her a MacMillan nurse, so we're hoping that she'll be able to motivate her and show her that her life isn't limited to a chair or a bed.
Well, that's about it in a nutshell. It sounds very matter-of-fact on paper, but I'm sure many of you out there have similar experiences. I'm so, so thankful for my amazing support network of family and friends, but I just thought it would be good to chat with some folks that have been there...I'm sure you know how it feels.
Lots of love, Jx
