Recently (March) my 74 yr old Mum had severe issues breathing and was sent to hospital for a chest x-ray. Once there we were sent straight through to ambulatory care as she had a shadow and what looked like fluid around her lung. They took a sample of the fluid, took her bloods, blood pressure and ECG was given strong diuretics and sent home to wait for the results. A week later the doctor rang and also prescribed antibiotics - which both helped and Mum was feeling much better. Next test was a scan plus a biopsy, which she had 2 weeks ago and went for the results Monday.
The scan showed a shadow on the right lung plus one of her kidneys. Cancer spotting of the left lung and inflamed lymph nodes. The confusing things are they couldn't take a biopsy of the bad lung due to it either being too deep or too thick to take a sample safely. So they took a biopsy of her left lung, which came back as inconclusive however on Monday after an appointment with a consultant has been told they believe she has Mesothelioma. They cannot operate or offer radiotherapy but can offer Chemotherapy which will 'manage' further growth. Mum has said no to chemo as she feels well at the moment and insists chemo will make her feel ill again. So, we now just do nothing for 3 months until she goes for another scan to check how things are.
I just can't get my head around the fact they can't tell us 100% what is in her right lung (are they just assuming it is cancer?) and due to the biopsy not being conclusive we are left with an element of doubt. Mum is very vague with the details as I believe she is trying to make it easier for everyone else to cope with, but I have made the mistake of looking up this type of cancer and the outlook is not great.
As everyone else can appreciate, most friends and family are constantly asking how mum is and I just don't want to keep going over the same information, as I just feel sick to my stomach every time I think about it and feel very guilty about being upset when I should be being strong for my Mum - who lives alone and must be feeling a lot worse than me. This along with Coronavirus has made life very surreal at the moment and each day I wake up feeling like it was just a nightmare, but it's not unfortunately.
I would love to be in contact with anyone else who has experienced this, sorry for the long ramble which probably doesn't even make sense.
Hi donna1407 and welcome to the online community
I'm really sorry to hear that your mum has been diagnosed with mesothelioma. It must be a very worrying time for the whole family.
I see that you've already found and joined the mesothelioma group and if you post this question there you should get responses from others who are dealing with this type of cancer. It would be far better to speak to others with first hand experience rather than read information on Google which might be years out of date. Clicking on the link I've created will take you straight to the group.
Obviously whether to have treatment or not is your mum's decision but it might be worthwhile telling her that not everyone feels ill when having chemotherapy.
You might also like to take a look at this page from Macmillan on mesothelioma. Most people who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma are able to receive financial help. This may be through compensation from an employer, or government benefits and the Macmillan information gives links and information on this.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
