Good Afternoon fellow unlucky people,
I have joined the forum to help me understand this dreadful disease to support my wife and her family
My father-in-law a healthy chap, who is 59 has stage 4 GBM, following a couple of months of tooing and throwing with GPs, A&Es, physios my FiL was diagnosed with a brain tumor, it was suspected to be GBM. He had become effectively paralysed on his left handside, he had seizures most days, the surgeon put him on steroids and scheduled his biopsy for this week. We left him to his own devises as he is fiercely independent, my wife seeing once a week. Last Sunday, I drove to his home to collect him for a family lunch, he was in a much worse condition with his conditions pretty much the same as they were 3 weeks prior, if not worse with a shortness of breath. He stayed at ours one night, till we called 111 the next morning, he was taken to hospital, where the doctors confirmed his sizeable tumor had doubled in size since his MRI scan 2 weeks prior. As such they kept him in the hospital till his hospital. Prior to the scheduled surgery, the doctor said that the surgery would be more procedural and we had the option to go ahead, not seek treatment as there would not be a great chance of surgery success. The doctors seems pretty certain its stage 4 GBM.
My FiL who is a fighter and an optimist went for the surgery
He had his debulking surgery very recently. The surgery seems to have been partially successful but due to the proximity of the tumor frontal lobe. He seems in good spirits following the surgery, we await the MRI, biopsy results, prognosis and future plans.
After reading many of the threads on this forum, I wanted to share our story, to have updates through other people who are in similar situation, and update other people searching at the internet for any clarity to help them through this dreadful situation.
Many Thanks,
Hi Edmund,
Welcome to the group I'm sorry you're here but glad you found us. I cared for my wife who had a GBM. Hers was also in the frontal lobe and affected her left hand side.
As I think you already know there's lots of really useful information on the Macmillan site about different aspects of cancer so if you haven't already have a good browse and come back with any questions. I found it really helpful just reading through the threads in this group to see what others' experiences had been like. Although we are all looking after someone with, or suffer from, a GBM we all end up taking slightly different routes depending on how it progresses and local care provision.
When it comes to the practical and emotional challenges of supporting family and friends you may also benefit from joining our Carers only support group where you will connect with others navigating the same cancer support challenges.
Please remember you can always call the Macmillan Support Services on 0808 808 00 00 - most services are open 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week Clicking here to see what is available. This service provides lots of cancer information, emotional support, benefit and financial guidance or just a listening ear.
Talking to people face to face can be very helpful so do check to see if you have any Local Macmillan Support in your area, do also check for a local Maggie's Centre as these folks are amazing. Or it may be as is the case for me that there are other local charities that can support you.
Hope some of this is useful and please do use this group to ask questions or just vent how you're feeling.
Chris
