Palliative Radiotherapy

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Been told i will be given 10 doses of palliative rad. as my reaction to 1 round of chemo ended with 10 days in hospital with infections so no more chemo.  Cant have surgery because of other conditions.  When the consultant used the word palliative the other day I immediately thought of end-of-life treatment especially as the oncologist said she had a few patients who had survived for 3-4 years. 

The Chemo made a huge difference in that I can now eat just about anything - or could until now.  I dont know if stress is causing me not to want to eat or just the chemo effects wearing off.  Feeling pretty depressed and rather hopeless at the moment.   Rad starts next week  Thursday & Friday then on shedule.

It was disconcerting to know that they could not identify any progress via scans etc. and the only barometer would be if/when I started loosing weight or becoming otherwise unwell.

Any insights would be appreciated,  

  • I must admit to being somewhat in disbelief. How, in this day and age and after billions of pounds given to cancer research are we not able to offer you some form of alternative chemical protocol, other than that tried?

    Have you enquired about immunotherapy or trials?

    Do you have someone supporting you?

    Others who read your story will try and suggest other things in sure.

    Please stay positive and keep posting to relieve the stress of it all.

    Best regards going forward.

    Geo.

  • Thanks for that.  My son is a paramedic but was not with me this time and he was gobsmacked that she didnt expand on the palliative bit.  I would have thought that the consultant would have made some recommendations but nothing was forthcoming - only palliative rad. 

    Perhaps she thinks that at 75 I shouldn't expect more, but I only gave up work as an IT Consultant when I was 72 because of Covid and had offers of work last year.  I feel I am being forced to think in terms of my imminent death not life. 

  • One other thing Geo, I had an endoscopy on 17th December with biopsies they lost the biopsy results which didn't turn up until - 17th March which stated cancer at 3mm  by which time i had another endoscopy which said clearly Cancer and had a PET scan which showed it had not spread to lungs etc. but measured 7mm. 

  • Hi Teressa. How is it possible in this day and age to lose your results. Sounds like neglect or more likely over burdoned staff.

    Shouldn't be at all possible though. As cancer patients we all know that the worst thing is the waiting. Thinking about the disease affecting us is getting larger and spreading around our bodies changing from curable to becoming a life threatening issue. 

    Please reach out to someone in the Macmillan organisation to talk to for more sound advice than mine. 

    Keep strong and positive. You'll beat this.

  • I couldn’t just scroll past your post Teressa, I want to send you hugs, my husband along with 2 other cancers has had his stomach out that’s why I’m here and on the stomach site. Please take care and I hope the radiotherapy helps you xx

    Sue Xx
  • Thanks Sue, hope your husband gets better and better. 

  • Geo, from what I saw of the results, I insisted I got a copy of all results, this was outsources and not signed off by any NHS clinician.