Hi
I posted a few months ago with regards to my Dad's treatment at the age of 86 and was blown away by the support. Sadly I'm back again! After his TURBT he successfully completed his 4 weeks of daily therapy but did have some side effects. His bowels are a bit unpredictable still ( he was a man who enjoyed a regular daily dump prior to this!) and he is pretty fatigued. But more worryingly whilst he ( and to a much lesser extent my mum too) have been waiting for him have full scan and get the results of that scan he has been unable/unwilling to engage in anything other than minimal activity (partly for fear of pooing himself but mostly unable to manage the uncertainty of what was going to happen next. As a result he's become much weaker than he was and lost lots of upper body strength. For the first time ever he had a fall last week ( kind of missed the bed) and found it very difficult to get up and Mum could not lift him. Since then he's been sore and doing even less ( preferring to lie in bed rather than sit in a chair).
Anyway he finally had the results of his scan which basically said the radiotherapy has successfully shrunk the areas of the bladder walls that couldn't be removed at TURBT and also shrunk the one slightly swollen nearby lymph nodes BUT he now has some small patches on his lungs. Next step blood test to check kidney function which was fine before. If this is still ok then chemotherapy for a whole day will be offered every 3 weeks to manage it. I wasn't present for the appointment but my parents are under the impression that he's got little time left with or without chemotherapy. Which makes me wonder why it was offered. This has thrown him in to an even lower place where he is even less inclined to do anything at all. My brother tried to bribe him into the garden with a cream cake today ( he was at least going outside a few weeks ago) but he refused and ate it in bed ( no problems with his appetite!)
So my questions are :
Any one got any experience with lung secondaries and what makes them appropriate for immunotherapy vs chemo ( as I believe the former has less side effects?)
Can anyone interpret what a few small patches on the lungs means?!!!
They will have a face to face with the consultant following the blood test but I can get one any earlier than 11 days time which is making them panic - I don't know how crucial time factors are in these kind of situations - anyone got any thoughts?
I live 200 miles from them and I really want Mum to have a carers assessment as I can't be their permanently and work and sort the kids but I'm not sure she will agree - anyone else succeeded in persuading parents to accept this idea!!
Thanks in advance lovely people xxx
P.S. My mum occasionally reads this forum but hopefully finds all comments useful
