I'm sorry if this may be in the wrong category.
My father an I are quite distressed and I was hoping for and would appreciate any help about mum who's 85.
She's had a rough time of things healthwise over the last few years and recently has been told she has a 5 cm brain tumour which was a complete shock.
We are at our wits end waiting for news and due to her health, time is of the essence
She's been in our local hospital nearly 4 weeks and the doctor told me that a CT scan found what appeared to be a tumour in the front lobe and that an MRI scan would show more detail.
We waited just over a week for the scan and on the day a doctor phoned me and passed on the radiologist initial thoughts that it looked quite bad, looked aggressive but couldn't give anymore answers to my questions and that an MDT meeting would take place and give us more detail and answers.
So another week passed before the MDT meeting took place.
I spoke to the doctor on the ward at this point who said they were still waiting for the report to be sent to them so they could decide on a way forward with either treatment (unlikely) or palliative care at home.
I've been asking every other day what the MDT results were and the doctor keeps telling us no news and the reports take time to come back.
We are now a full week in after the MDT meeting having taken place and none the wiser with what's going to happen.
Is this timescale normal?
Mums cognitive function is deteriorating (she's never had dementia), we just want her home as soon as possible to see family and friends whilst she's still able to have a reasonable conversation. Covid has obviously barred hospital visits other than dad and me.
many thanks in advance
Hi and welcome to the online community
I'm very sorry to hear that your mum has just been diagnosed with a brain tumour and it's natural to be worried and want to know what treatment her doctors are proposing.
It often seems to us that it takes a long time to arrange, scans, tests, etc but it's important for all the information to be available so that treatment is tailored for your mum. Although it might not seem like it to you, it sounds like things are moving quickly for your mum if the hospital was able to arrange a scan in a week and then the report was ready for the MDT meeting a week later. If your mum has been assigned a cancer nurse specialist (CNS), you might find it helpful to talk to her as she can liaise between you and the doctors to find out when they are expecting to have the treatment plan ready.
As the community is divided up into groups, I'm going to recommend that you join the group where you can ask questions, share experiences and get support from others who have this type of cancer. You might also like to join the Family and friends forum group, which is a safe and supportive place to share your worries with others who have a family member coping with cancer.
To join either or both of these groups, just click on the links I've created and then choose 'click to join' on the pages that open. You can then introduce yourself and post questions after selecting '+New' and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'. To save you typing this out again you could copy and paste it into a new discussion.
When you have a minute, it would be really useful if you could pop something about your mum's journey so far into your profile as it really helps others when answering or looking for someone with a similar diagnosis. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.
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"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
I'm sorry to hear that the prognosis wasn't as good as you'd hoped for but hopefully you know what the treatment plan is now.
I see that you've joined the group and I'm sure you'll get support from the other members of the group.
Wishing you and your mum all the best
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"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
