Diagnosis

Dear aplaceinthesun, I am very disappointed that you feel so unsupported after your father’s diagnosis. Of course you will find help and support here in the forum but you can also get assistance from a maggies centre if there is one in your area. You don’t mention if your dad will be receiving treatment of any kind ? Prognosis is no longer an exact science and many people here will testify to that. I would suggest that your dad visits his general practitioner as he has all the contacts necessary to refer him to any local services he may need in the future, like district nurse, palliative care. It’s very important to get yourself on the radar even though you might not need any physical help at this point, as the wheels of the nhs turn quite slowly and its good to be prepared for any eventuality. I know you will be in shock right now but when the dust settles you will refocus and find a way to give your dad the best quality of life you can.

I can really empathise with you! The same happened to us!!! I am fortunate that I am a nurse with a best friend in palliative care so that was a start! I have sourced help from our local hospice who have sorted hospice at home district nursing to come and do an assessment and back up as I need it! I have also found my husbands GP incredibly supportive and helpful! The hospital have been hopeless although a small improvement and change of attitude when I cleverly suggested they had confused us with. Conflicting info and did I need to make an official complaint! I got apology and more appropriate info then! 
the hospital told us the Macmillan social worker would ring! Hopeless to be honest! Kept saying she wasn’t medical!! But the hospice has organsed pip payments within a couple of weeks!!! 
my advice would be to try your local hospice! I honestly just turned up, very upset and they stopped and helped immediately! They were my saviour! Feeling more confident and prepared now! My husband only had up to a year but at least I can make it more pleasant now! My employer has also been great with counselling and support! The shock will get better and you will get ‘organised’ xx