Hello, I’m new to this forum. My mum was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer 20 years ago! Amazing really. She’s been through a mastectomy, radio & chemo over the years, but for the last 10 years she’s been stable and only taking tamoxifen to keep the secondary bone cancer at bay.
Then 6 months ago she started having mobility issues, numbness down her left leg, and after a number of GP appointments she was diagnosed with secondary brain mets. She quickly had surgery to remove the tumour, which didn’t remove it all. A few weeks ago she completed 3 weeks of radiotherapy. Throughout this she’s been such a brick, staying positive and being a superstar.
unfortunately the radio hasn’t worked, so the next big step is targeted therapy. I can tell she isn’t keen because of the side effects. We have a meeting with the consultant on Tuesday.
it would be really helpful to hear how others have found targeted therapy. I was hoping it might be less harsh than chemo, but from a Google search it looks like very similar effects.
Thanks very much
Hi and welcome to the Online Community although I am sorry to hear about your mum’s diagnosis.
A cancer diagnosis in the family can be such a stressful and challenging time but I do hope you will find the community a safe place to get support and ask your questions.
The Community is divided into support groups (discussion rooms) and I see you have joined our Breast, secondary cancer group, you may also want to consider joining our supportive Brain, secondary tumours group. This is a safe place to talk to others who may have a similar diagnosis, treatment experience, to ask questions and get support from others supporting family.
If you'd like to connect in with a group click on the Green (Bold) link(s) I have created above. Once the group page opens click on the black banner that says [click to join] at the bottom, or the [Join] button under "Group tools."
You can then introduce yourself by putting up a ‘new post’ by clicking in the box near the top right with + New or + (Depending on the device you are using) and you are ready to go. You could copy and paste the text from this post into your new post.
When it comes to the practical and emotional challenges of supporting someone you may also benefit from joining our general Family and friends group where you will connect with others navigating the same challenges.
Macmillan have many support services so do check out the Macmillan Support Line is open 8am-8pm (timings may differ across services) 7 days a week on 0808 808 00 00. These services provide cancer information, practical information, emotional support, benefits/financial guidance or just a listening ear.
We also have our Ask an Expert section but do allow a few working days for a reply.
Talking to people face to face can be very helpful so do check to see if you have any Local Macmillan Support in your area, do also check for a local Maggie's Centre as these folks are amazing supporting all the family.
Please do get back to me if you need further help.
All the very best.
Hi again, I have just done a search of the site and got a few hits on the word Abemaciclib.
So go to the search 
tool near the top of the site, put in Abemaciclib and select Anywhere. This will bring up all the posts and as always you can not reply and see if the members are still using the site ((hugs))
