Coping with finding out Mum has Cancer

Hi,

My mum has had cancer 4 times. This last bout is a return of bowel cancer which has spread to her lung; so stage 4. She is currently having chemo but she is over 70 so I'm very worried. 

I completely understand how you're feeling as part of me wants to know what to expect but the other half doesn't. I attend appointments with my mum but decided to email her macmillan nurse who has answered a couple of questions for me but nothing definite. 

This may be an avenue for you to try?

Take care.

My mum was diagnosed with breast cancer just over 6 weeks ago that has unfortunately spread to her spine. She’s had a mastectomy 2 weeks ago. We don’t know how long she’s known or suspected as she’s been hiding it from us for some time, hence the speed of medical intervention. However, we like you don’t really know much detail. My sisters and I are all still in shock and trying to process the speed of it all but I want to know the cold hard facts so we can prepare for the future. It isn’t going away and I think we’d all be better for knowing exactly what we dealing with however hard that is to hear. My mum is in denial (think the op has cured everything) and we believe she is also suffering from the early stages of dementia. It’s not easy but really important to share and talk about your feelings. It affects everyone so  differently. Take time to look after yourself, you can’t be strong for everyone all the time. Take care and thinking of you and your family x

I'm so sorry to hear this.  Reading this just echoes my feelings over the last few months. 

My mum was diagnosed with lung cancer in March that gad spread to her adrenal glands, bowel and Pancreas. After a couple of rounds of immunotherapy therapy we were told on 17th August that it had shrunk the lung cancer however the pancreatic tumour had doubled in size and mum had weeks left to live. 

The Oncologist actually thinks that mum had been fighting lung cancer and pancreatic cancer but couldn't do a biopsy to confirm this as she simply wasn't strong. 

Mum died about 15 hours later in the early hours of Thursday 18th August. 

I was exactly like you,  I couldn't get upset as I had to be the strong one, the one to organise everything. 

Even now several weeks later it hasn't really hit me properly. 

Hey,

Sending lots of love. I have also this week found out that my mum has endometrial cancer. Still in the early stages of diagnosis so we are still a bit in the dark as to stage and potential spread (CT scan next week followed by MDT). All we are sure of at the moment is that it's high grade. 

I was expecting this outcome given symptoms and the concerning findings on the scan and hysteroscopy, and had been very pragmatic about it, but to hear the consultant say those words is still such a shock, it makes it real. (coming from me who works in healthcare as well).

It's starting to sink in again now, and I've had all sorts of thoughts going around in my head at the moment. I completely understand how you're feeling. I just want to know all the information that we will still need to wait another 2-3 weeks for once my mum's had her scan and her case has been discussed at MDT.