Hi, I'm new here. My Mum, who turns 63 this year, was diagnosed with SCLC in November 2022 after a bout of illness following Covid. They initially thought it was Lymphoma but soon discovered a large mass in her paratracheal stripe after some scans etc. She was a smoker for years, but gave up 4 years ago.
It all came at a time (as I suppose it often does) when my household had a big upheaval to cope with, which is still ongoing, and I feel like I'm not being supportive enough to my Mum.
She lives 40 minutes away, with her partner, and near my sister, who has 4 children, one of whom has a serious medical condition.
I have 5 children, and my husband has 2 other children he is responsible for on a weekly basis.
With all the life stuff that involves, (and some heavy issues surrounding his children) plus my husband's elderly widowed Mother to consider, we have barely enough hours in the day.
I'm really quite a bit of a mess on the inside but doing my best to keep it all together outwardly, although I know it probably shows but I'm doing my best to shield my children from it all.
I feel like it's very difficult to express my emotions surrounding it with my Mum - she's not open to emotional conversation so I don't feel like I can talk to her about the diagnosis save for practical considerations eg about treatment and how she is feeling.
Everyone keeps on saying things like "stay positive" etc which is great but I don't feel like that at all.
My Mum has aggressive extensive SCLC and there is no cure. I have not been told what the prognosis us, or how long the treatment will give her.
She just looks so different and the treatment is taking it's toll on her. She already had fibromyalgia before the cancer so I think that's affecting how the treatment is making her feel.
I was hoping I'd be able to spend more time with her, but during the chemo cycles she has to isolate so I've only seen her 3 times since the diagnosis.
I don't really have anyone to talk to, it just sort of feels like everyone around me forgets it's happening, and I'm constantly reminded of it.
I am also aware of being too selfish about it all with my own feelings, so I completely understand why my Mum wouldn't want to talk about the saddest part of it all.
I am not feeling very brave about it anymore, I'm starting to feel quite frightened and unsure about how to handle it.
Hi again OverwhelmedTurtle I have put up an answer to your initial post.
As you said in you initial post, this one had disappeared, you may well have accidentally hit the Flag to Moderator tag at the bottom - it is easy to do this but our Community team picks these up and put them back on the site,
I have given you a lot of information in your initial post so do have a look at it and do get back to me if you need further help
