Long story short..my mum was diagnosed with bowel cancer April 2019. She went through op to remove tumour in May however secondary cancers had already spread to liver and lungs. She started chemo in July 2019 and as it was severe treatment after 4/5 treatments mum was admitted to hospital at the end of September 2019, by 4th October we were told my mum had days to live...thankfully she is still with us, she was moved from hospital to hospice to home by November 2019. Of course it wasn’t particularly happy news as the cancer was still there but not quite as final as first anticipated. My mum has deteriorated since then and today she confined to bed with a catheter however can still use a commode, drink tea/coffee, and eat. Her medication has steadily increased throughout this process and today it has been increased to 1000mg of diamorphine. Since leaving the hospital and the news we received in October nobody has mentioned my mums timescale (and of course I know they can’t) However I know this amount of medication will make her sleep more and wondered if someone could please tell me what to expect from now on, could my mum stay in the this condition for months and months or is this the beginning of the end. It’s hard to put into words the heartache I feel watching my mum being so ill but it feels like everyone is being a little vague about what to expect. I don’t know if anyone can give me a little advice but anything would be appreciated.
Hi and welcome to the community though so sorry to hear about your mum, she certainly sound like a very tough lady.
In terms of timescale as you have discovered they are really very difficult to produce anything other than a guess even for the medics dealing with the case with all the facts before them.
It can be very hard being in the position of seeing a loved one get weaker and weaker and knowing they are not going to recover. Some people can refer to this stage as pre-grief and sometimes it can take away from whatever time we have left together.
Usually the hospice team will have someone who will support the carers as well as the patient though things might be a bit more difficult at the moment; if you talk to the people supporting your mum I hope they can put you in touch with someone who can support you.
<<hugs>>
Steve
