I’m new here, in a place I had never expected to be. In February my mum was rushed into hospital and needed emergency surgery for a bowel tumour. She’d had a colonoscopy a year ago, that was clear and up until January 25 mum was very active and apparently healthy’. The diagnosis of bowel cancer came with the news that there was also extensive spread with mets in the bones, lungs, stomach and ovaries.
It’s all been a horrible whirlwind of appointments since then with the whole family struggling to deal with the diagnosis and mums rapid deterioration. She can now barely walk across the room, she is so breathless, is struggling to sleep and eats very little.
It has all been a bit disjointed between GP ( who were useless up to now) surgical team and oncology, however mum has made the decision not to have palliative chemo. Palliative care team are now being involved and I’m hoping mum will now have someone to go to for everything and someone to talk everything through with.
Within a few weeks mums gone from thinking / hoping she just had a tummy bug to having to make end of life decisions. It’s all so overwhelming.
I’m also struggling with it all. I’m the eldest and I’m trying to be strong but seeing my mum so frail and poorly is breaking my heart. My husband also has mental health issues and became unwell last week and has now gone to stay with his relatives.
I know everyone here is going through similar cancer journeys with family members so can understand the emotions.
