Hi
My dad has stage 4 stomach cancer. He has been battling it for 3 years now.
He was diagnosed with stage 4 about a year ago and had the foxfol chemotherapy up until February this year which he seemed to be managing well with.
He had a scan in early may and received a call from his oncologist in early June to inform him there was no progression.
In mid June he started to feel pain in the stomach area and was eventually referred to a and e by his Gp on 1st July.
He had been in and out of the hospital for the next 3 weeks. He eventually had a previously scheduled scan on 12th August which frustratingly was not brought forward by the oncologist despite my requests. Within all this time no diagnosis or treatment of the pain from either the hospital or the oncologist. The palliative care team have been great but fundamentally not been successful in helping with the pain.
on Wednesday we got the news from the palliative care doctor that this scan showed significant progression which we suspected all along, but devastatingly they said they cannot offer him further chemotherapy treatment because he is too unwell! No s**t he’s unwell after being in terrible pain for the past 7 weeks and unable to eat properly and this thing running riot unchallenged in his stomach! I feel the oncologist has not reacted quickly enough to this latest pain and has refused to bring the scan forward all the while my dads condition is deteriorating!!
The heart breaking thing is my dad is mentally full of life and the will to live but his body is not agreeing. I just feel that if there is just some possible palliative treatment out there that his current oncologist is possibly unaware of or not considering, that could kill the pain enough for him to start eating and building up strength he would jump at it, then he could be in a position to continue with chemotherapy to keep it at bay.
My plea is to anyone who kindly takes the time to read this who may have had similar experience and or may know of a specialist or anything I could turn to, it would be so greatly appreciated. We are at a desperate stage and it feels the clock is ticking so quick.
Thank you.
Hi Dean.j and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
It sounds like you and your dad have had a difficult time recently and I can understand you wanting to find other treatment.
As the online community is divided into different support forums I'm going to recommend that you join the stomach cancer forum which is a great place to ask questions and share experiences with others who have a similar diagnosis to your dad.
To join, just click on the link I've created and, once you've joined, you can start a new post in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
It would be great if you could put something about your dad's diagnosis and treatment to date into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. 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.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
