Hi All. I have been scouring this forum for a few weeks and have read a lot of your stories. I would like to share my mum's story to see if I can learn anything more to help her.
Earlier this year my mum, who is 81, developed problems with her legs and became unable to walk. She was admitted to hospital in June due to low blood platelets. An x-ray was done and it was then discovered that both her legs were fractured hence being bed-bound. They did a biopsy and found that it was DLBCL (Stage 4) which had spread from the lymph nodes in her chest to her legs. It had basically eaten away some of the tibia bones. She then had surgery to insert rods into her legs to strengthen them.
She was started on R-Mini-Chop at the end of August and has now completed 3 out of 6 cycles. She was discharged 2 weeks ago to a Rehab Center to start physio in order to improve her mobility. However, she had to be readmitted to hospital last weekend as she caught an infection. She is now on a course on antibiotics. She had appeared to be making good progress at the Rehab Center as she was in a better environment, eating better and also getting more effective physio than in hospital. We are hoping she will be discharged back to Rehab again soon.
However, we are worried. I know chemo has bad side-effects but she has lost 3 stone since she was first admitted to hospital and continues to eat minimally and is getting weaker. She is suffering a lot of reflux and basically has little to no appetite (she does frequently complain about a bad taste on her tongue?). In addition, she is still bed bound and is uncomfortable from bed sores.
She has started to take some meal replacement shakes to help her as they are easier to swallow and digest than solid food but again those shakes only have so many calories and she will continue to lose weight and get weaker.. Wondering if any one has any advice on anything we can do to help her eat more and regain her strength. She is due to have a scan to see if the chemo has had any effect on the cancer. I guess that result will determine the immediate way forward but in the meantime would be good to know if there is something we or the hospital have not thought of.
Great news rupert123 and as the saying goes 'It does what it says on the tin' comes to mind and this is true most of the time.
The initial post treatment years do require to be monitored and navigated..... there are going to be moments where you will all confuse normal life stuff that an 82 year old would normally have with the thought that "is it coming back". Remember her clinical team are at the end of the phone.
Have a great party - you all deserve this..... and I will have a wee dram tonight to celebrate this news.
((hugs)) to your mum.
