Dear Team,
Firstly, and most importantly, thank you for all that you do. My sister had her first appointment with your team this week in Northallerton after cessation of treatment and it went better than she had hoped. Since her oncologist has revealed that combined treatment was not having any further impact on her lung cancer, we have moved suddenly to a summer of her being 'well' but clearly moving into palliative care. She has shared some details with me, but I am pretty unsure what to expect and what this will present for us now and in the coming weeks/months.
My mother's support has moved gradually more to me and I know this will continue, including a hip operation for her at the end of this month. My brothers are sporadic in support, and although my brother in law is rock-solid, I simply don't know what's coming. I have no idea how the disease will affect her and how quickly, how much to prepare for her pain and what time we might have; she has declined knowing any time scale. I respect that entirely but have to have some sort of idea how this cancer is going to progress so that I can organise work, family, Mum, care... it feels overwhelming because I have no reference points. My sister is immensely strong, ridiculously 'healthy' looking, although underweight and sleeping very poorly. She is 62 and her cancer is in both lungs, well-established and unresponsive no to chemo, both oral and vein-delivered.
Can you help me? Are there time scales which can guide how I act and react? I would really appreciate some support, if possible.
My thanks,
Anna
