Hi everyone.
My mum's a stage 4 melanoma patient receiving treatment currently. She's showing a lot of good signs, she's started eating more and put some weight on, she had these strange lumps on her legs that have all disappeared, and she's got lots more energy, so her oncologist is very hopeful. But she has this appalling cough that has got a lot worse in the last week. We know she has a blood clot in her lung that she hasn't had treated because of the tumours in her brain, and I'm concerned it's a sign that the clot is becoming dangerous.
My mum is so frightened of having her treatment stopped or finding out the cancer in her lungs has grown that she won't report the symptom to her specialist nurse and keeps insisting the coughing has just got worse because of a cold. I have no idea what to do, and my poor mum is getting so stressed by the coughing that she's struggling to eat again and is beginning to lose weight. I'm afraid of the same things she is, but I'm scared to just ignore it as the cough gets more and more violent.
Any advice would be really appreciated.
Thanks
Hi Pip93
Sorry to hear about your mum and what you are all going through.
I know when my wife was undergoing treatment she was always being weighed so it is likely that that will be picked up very quickly.
Totally understand the worry about stopping treatment, the doctors will too. As you know of course the treatment is not easy and those potential side effects can be very real - a short delay in treatment to get on top of another problem might be helpful.
With my wife's first treatment it was stopped at the half way point because it triggered a lung to collapse, more hospital appointments than we could shake a stick at and they got on top of that problem - then a second round of a different chemo made her cancer stable - 10 years and counting now.
<<hugs>>
Steve
