Advice Please

Hi Looloolid 

Is it laryngeal cancer he has? 

so sorry about your grandad. You are right. The treatment is painful and hugely challenging even for a much younger person. 

Your grandad’s medical team must be pretty sure he is robust enough to go through it. 
He will need a lot of help but if he has support then he has a good chance 

Hello there,  so sorry to hear  about your grandads diagnosis.Like Dani said, treatment is challenging. Everyone gets through it on their own way. If you like to know,the side effects were very challenging for my husband,58. Has your grandads medical team explained what to expect? In my husbands case his side effects were the caughing, dry mouth, sticky mucus,not be able to eat,he had a PEG fitted prior treatment,due to this he lost weight quickly,about 40kgs altogether,Speech got lost about half way through.For the first few weeks after finishing treatment,all he did was sleeping.His neck was so badly burned,I thought it would never heal.He got very depressed at some point, what we at some point discovered could have been caused by some meds he was on,these got changed then and he felt better.(ish) I can't remember how often I cried myself to sleep,feeling so helpless. But you have to pick yourself up and stay positive. What can I say, he's now 5+ mths post treatment, no evidence of the disease, everything looks positive,working now on putting some weight back on and build up some strength. It's a new kind of normal for us,but we are grateful he's still here. So please stay strong and positive.Stay with us, there is always some one here to help.Big hugs. Mel x

Treatment can be tough but if oncology are happy to go with it then he should go ahead, the alternative may be unthinkable, side effects vary from patient to patient.

Dr Google can't give you the information about the treatment that you will receive from this forum.

Good evening, Looloolid. What a great age for your granddad to reach.

As others have said, the treatment can be difficult in many cases, causing considerable discomfort. I think the most important opinion is that of your grandad and how you, as a family, believe he will cope. It sounds as if his team is confident about the treatment, which is a plus. Also, if he finds it difficult, the treatment can be stopped. Wishing you and your family all the best in what action is taken. Take care.

                                                                                  Chris x

So sorry to hear about your grandad's diagnosis. What a wonderful age to reach. My dad reached the great age of 98 and my mum 94 so I was very privileged to have them with me so long. It is really your grandad's decision to make but he should be fully aware of the challenges of the treatment as radiotherapy can be hard. It boils down to quality of life versus quantity. A hard decision to make. Lots of questions for him and the family to ask his consultant so you can all weigh up the pros and cons.

Thinking of you all.

Lyn

No they haven't explained at all. This was the consultant at ENT today and he just brushed over it all really. We are meeting with Christie's next week so I'm wondering if we actually get more explained to us then? I guess the thing is we want him to still be able to have a quality of life. He still loves coming away with us in a caravan and he adores his Great Grandchildren. It's a rubbish situation 

Thank you, such an awful situation but we will support him whatever he chooses. It's just his age that's more worrying than anything. We feel like it's a lot to him to go through x

Hi Looloolid.

It certainly is a rotten situation and I'm so sorry your grandad, and his obviously caring family, find yourselves in.

I'd suggest that you digest all the posts you get from the community here, especially the parts pertinent to your grandad, and write down a host of questions to present to Christie's next week.  Bombard them if you must and then write down all the answers they give you at the meeting.  Don't be fobbed off and don't leave until you're satisfied they've been upfront with everything you ask.

If grandad does decide to go ahead with treatment, as it's his decision ultimately, then like chris2012 said, he can bring it to a halt if he finds it too challenging.

Like yourself, I'm not the unwell one but going by my fella's experience of RT, compared to some on here, he didn't suffer too badly BUT he does have 34 years on grandad.  Age must come into the equation and an honest discussion between him and his oncologist has to take place.

I'm really hoping things pan out for you all, and whatever your grandad decides will be the best route for him to take.

Keep away from Dr Google, if you can, as he'll scare you more than you already are.  Stick to reputable sites if possible.

All my best wishes to your family and good luck, love.

Gill xx