Hey everyone,
I am new here and I guess I am after information- I don’t really know.
Background story: My father in law was diagnosed in may 2021 with T4b N0 M0 SCC Sinonasal cancer. He had been suffering for more than a year with symptom such as extreme headaches, inflamed sinus’s and right sided facial pain but this unfortunately was happening through the pandemic so no face to face with a doctor and when the pain became unbearable still Doctors wouldn’t investigate.
We decided to go private to see an trigeminal neurologist ( as we thought this may be the problem) and within 24 hours of seeing the private Dr my father in law was taking in to ENT via his own Dr and then a day later a biopsy was taken and a week later we were told it was cancer and then we had the full diagnosis after the MTD meeting.
as a family we were and are devastated as you can imagine and also very angry as we feel that if he had been seen earlier or investigations had happened he may of had a better chance 
My father in law has had chemotherapy which unfortunately hasn’t worked and the cancer has grown further around his face into his brain and also the bones of his face- he has also lost the sight in his right eye due to the cancer. He had radiation therapy to slow the cancer growth down so he could get married my mother in law ( they’ve been together 37 years) and also to see his two son’s get married. All of this has been rushed through as we wanted him present with us to see this. He has now tried chemo at home ( not sure of the name) but it comes in a ball and shrinks over a couple of days- his pain is terrible at the moment he can’t bare it he has lost 5 stone since April 2021 he is on roughly two ensures a day as he can’t manage anymore than that or food.
He is on 130mg Zoramoprh morning and night 20mg oramorph every 3-4 hours also gabapentin not sure on the dosages of that plus paracetamol but he is saying this is not helping his pain currently.
We was told his cancer is incurable but they can help manage the pain but my father in law is stubborn and doesn’t like to complain to doctors as he is terrified they will admit him into hospital and he is scared stiff of this and refuses to go if needed.
Also the tumour is inoperable due to size and location.
He has constant bleeding from the nose and an extremely hard dark mass inside his nose which his specialist has said it’s possibly the cancer mass and may break out through his nose she also said from his symptoms she doesn’t believe this chemo is working either but will give this treatment another go and then try him on a different chemo in two weeks time.
we can see him getting weaker and weaker each day- he has been in bed the last 3 days as he is so tired and no energy.
I’ve researched and researched over and over but Sinonasal cancer does not have much information.
I wondered if anyone here has a similar story. To be honest I don’t really know what I am asking for 
my husband is devastated and I am dreading the day we have to say goodbye and so so worried how to deal with this as a family.
Thank you for reading this far- Charlotte
Thank you for replying.
lots to add to my father in laws story about MRI misdiagnosis etc prior to diagnosis but hey doesn’t change anything now.
my mother in law has mentioned immunotherapy which is what his specialist has suggested they will try after this chemo.
When he had his other chemo which was for around 5 hours a day he felt fantastic it gave him such a boost for a few weeks but unfortunately his cancer still grew.
yes we keep trying to get him to eat small amounts but the last couple of days he just keeps being sick.
We phoned them yesterday about the pain and they upped his zoramorph by 10 mg and his oramorph by 5 mgs but he said today it’s not even touching the pain and the pain is like he had before he was diagnosed.
thank you for the advise 
️
just been told his chemo is cancelled for tomorrow as his sodium levels are too low a set back he really didn’t need right now.
Oh Charlotte I am so sorry to hear how sick your father in law is. From what you say there seems to be no treatment they are offering apart from palliation of his pain. This is not under control and should be. Can you ask about temporary hospice care where they can get his pain under control before he comes home again. Are you being realistic about immunotherapy? Sorry to be blunt but I would sit down with his oncologist for a proper conversation about this. It all sounds dreadful.
I hope you get somewhere soon
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
Hi Beesuit
Unfortunately my father in law is adamant he will not go into a hospice.
He has someone come to his home from hospice care and also an out of hour number they can call for him when in a lot of pain. Since last night they have now increased his morphine to 30mg.
When my father in law was diagnosed in May the oncologist was extremely honest with him and us as a family and explain from the offset he will have palliative care as the cancer is very aggressive and advanced ( diagnosed stage 4 from the beginning) but they did say even though his cancer isn’t curable but they would manage his pain but unfortunately this isn’t the case for the poor man.
He has no quality of life at the moment due to the pain he is in and we can see him basically dying before our hours slowly.
When he was first diagnosed they never gave a time frame for his life and wasn’t told terminal- have since found out they don’t tend to say terminal these days- but after the first lot of chemo didn stop the growth of the tumour, his oncologist said he has months rather than years left and that was about 3 months ago
He is only 52 never smoked in his life and so anti smoking yet he has a rare cancer that generally smokers get.
The cancer is locally spread and primary cancer but this seems more aggressive than so many other cancers. It’s just not fair seeing him suffer life this.
thanks for you time x
It isn’t fair. Can you maybe ask if he can have fentanyl patches as well? I wish I could suggest something else
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
Thank you.
I will keep everyone updated.
He had sodium today to boost his levels.
I spoke to my MIL about his next chemo treatment after he finishes this one and it’s nivolumab- oncologist has said it has lots of life threatening side effects though
kind regards- Charlotte
