My wife has had all three of these treatments.About 9 years ago, she had radiotherapy and chemo for small cell lung cancer. It worked, but not without many complications. She had a collapsed vertebrae and a bullectomy to name just two.
She now has incurable lung cancer and has had chemo, immunotherapy and radiotherapy. None of which seems to be working to any great degree. Once again the side effects are horrendous. Vomiting, weakness, headaches, itching, depression etc.
I am just short of 70 years old. At a certain age, it's it really worth the suffering or better to have a decent last couple of years? I have made my own decision based on what I have witnessed.
Hi kgx112d
Sorry to hear about your wife and everything you have both been through. We do hear quite a lot around the balance between quality and quantity of life and the whole informed consent bit is incredibly hard. Often even more so where our loved ones make decisions we might not agree with. When my wife was diagnosed she never wanted a prognosis and I really struggled with that - she was right I was wrong, she is still here and going strong 10 years later - living with cancer is our new world.
One useful tip, sometimes, listen very carefully to the oncologist - if they say "I recommend this treatment" it might be worth giving some more consideration. On the other hand the slightly lesser "I can offer this treatment" - might be a clue that the cost might be more than the benefit.
It is just so difficult to know what to do for the best but given we make the best decision we can at the time we need to make it then it clearly was the right decision at the time, there is no reset in the real world.
<<hugs>>
Steve
