Hi, I’m new to this group, apologies if I’m unclear or not posting in the right place. My sister had breast cancer at the age of 46, 15 years ago. She’s had back pain since September and has been to GP many times, given diagnosis of sciatica amongst other things. 6 weeks ago she went to A&E as pain was agony and MRI showed a growth in her spine. That was partially removed next day. She has recently admitted that the MRI showed lesions on her lungs and a suspicious looking lymph node under her arm. Tuesday is radiotherapy (one and done) and lymph node biopsy results, Wednesday is the results of spinal growth pathology. We are bracing ourselves for a poor prognosis as I suspect these are metastatic tumours giving her a likely 2/5 years. She’s expecting to hear this, and prepared. I’m going with her for both appointments, and I’m just wondering if anyone has been in my shoes and can offer any advice or suggestions? Thank you for reading.
Hi Jackster
Welcome to the community, I hope you find it both informative and supportive.
Glad to hear your are going with your sister, it can be very helpful to have someone else there as it can be difficult to keep track of everything on your own.
My wife was diagnosed (everntually - long story) with Leiomyosarcoma so a rather different type fo cancer. Janice was however very clear that she did not want a prognosis and I really struggled with that. Nobody would have guessed though that the second round of chemotherapy would end up rendering her cancer stable and it has been like that for over 10 years now.
Of course nobody can say for sure how long anyone will survive. There are lots of stories on here of people who have outlived any prognosis, sometimes though it almost seems like some die almost to order and of course there are a few cases where people die early leaving their loved ones feeling robbed. Once anyone has a prognosis of course it is not possible to take it back.
Something I suffered from a bit in our early days was thinking too much about the future, often inventing things that were worse than what actually happened. I did a living with less stress course that helped me learn to appreciate what we have on a day to day basis. The conscious breathing exercises were good too when life decides to throw us another curve ball.
Do post on here whenever and if you have something more specific about your sisters cancer you could also try asking in our Breast cancer forum where there is a lot of experience they can share.
<<hugs>>
Steve
