Husbands diagnosis

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feeling very overwhelmed !

my husband is an otherwise active healthy 62 year old (I keep him young apparently!! I’m 52) he had a colonoscopy on 5th Jan where they found an 8cm cancer approx 10cm up in the rectum we were called into the “little room” and told that it was malignant.

He had a staging CT on the 9th and the MRI today (11th) having more bloods done and the MDT is next Thursday but now we won’t hear anything for two weeks apparently.

hes self employed and has been all his life, im a third year nursing student so currently not working! He’s never not worked and neither of us have ever claimed benefits. We are looking to sell our house so we can release some money.

I want him to stop stressing about money bills mortgage loan payments credit cards everything and just concentrate on keeping positive or as positive as you can when just been told you have cancer !!

how does everyone cope financially?

court over 1 year ago

Hi Tracey7

Really sorry to hear about your husband .

Can I suggest you give our helpline a call . Macmillan has benefit advisors who can point you in the right direction .

0808 808 0000.

Hope that helps as it will take a lot of pressure off him.

All the best with his treatment whatever form it comes in and keep chatting here as we have lots of people going through the same .

Court

Helpline Number 0808 808 0000

Sam_85 over 1 year ago

Hi Tracey,

So sorry to hear about this. My husband has been diagnosed and he is only 38 and has always been self employed and run his own business as well. It sounds terrible but with the diagnosis, my first worry was finances especially with children involved. We are trying to plan to pay off debts and reducing expenses where we can. We are looking to change our car and get something smaller and more manageable. Its hard work trying to compress everything within such a short time. But slowly and surely getting there.

I would suggest make a spreadsheet with a list of expenses and see where you can reduce. Having things on paper helps me plan. Hope it helps you too.

Good Luck!

Lucy1382 over 1 year ago

Trav

Lucy1382 over 1 year ago in reply to Lucy1382

Tracey- sorry, on a new laptop which is playing up! I am in the same position - I am self employed and 61, the main breadwinner for me and my husband- got the call into the "little room" and the on the spot rectal cancer diagnosis in August. Obviously, you won't know anything until the MDT but just to say that I have managed to work through the whole thing with no financial loss. I've had chemo tablets/ radiotherapy and am now on brachytherapy (which may be offered to him too,as the cancer is rectal). I work from home so it's not been as bad, but I really didn't feel too awful (won't say I was 100% and out partying every night because I definitely wasn't! but it wasn't anything that meant I couldn't get on with things). My only loss of income was managing to badly break my arm three weeks before treatment started which meant I was in huge shock/pain and couldn't use a computer! Work was also really normalising and a distraction for me.

Obviously everyone is different and your husband may well get a different treatment plan too, but don't despair. It's a really tough time until the MDT with not knowing where you're at, but it may not be as bad as you think.

Fingers crossed for you both xx