My mum is a beautiful 61 yo lady, no symptoms til recently, after a trip to A&E in January for a chest pain we were finally told it was lung cancer on 6th March, then on 14th March told there was pleural effusion and fluid in lining of lungs which needed to be drained, so it was stage 4 advanced and had spread to the lining of the lung. They said they were shocked how fast and aggressive and had only just spread in the last few weeks when comparing ct to pet scan. They said this means they can’t operate and will offer palliative combination chemotherapy. They didn’t tell my mum how long she had left. They said there were more tumours but wouldn’t say how many when we asked saying it doesn’t matter as the chemo would reach it all (but they said it’s palliative chemo?). My worry is- are they offering a tiny bit of chemo just to offer something, will it work, will it not, will it make my mum so sick only to extend life by a tiny bit?
Mum has 1 cycle of chemo and was doing well but a scan letter came to have a ct after 2 cycles. I think this has scared her. My worry is that there’s no baseline as such, because her last ct scan was in Feb way before chemotherapy started. They won’t then be comparing it with the start of chemo and I’m worried the cancer could have spread a lot in that time before chemo even started so how can they see if it is working if it got worse in the lag time?
Mum is terrified that there’s doctors could stop it at any time and she feels not in control and scared all the time. All she has is the hope of chemo.
Does anyone know why my mum is struggling so much with walking and especially stairs after 1 cycle of gemcarbo chemo? She was doing great in the first 2 weeks (had chemo in day 1 and 8) and is now in the break before starting cycle 2 (day 22) She seems to have put on weight (visibly larger but not much on scales) and has a bigger face, not sure if facial swelling (steroids or chemo?). She is struggling with stairs so much especially at night. I thought she might feel a bit better in the break before cycle 2 but she seems worse. I’m not sure if this is normal chemo fatigue or something wrong with her legs? She says she feels like there’s an extra weight around her and just feels so heavy. I was wondering if she’s not drinking enough or eating too much from steroids. It’s hard to know what is a normal side effect and what is a worrying one to report? She is terrified if she says anything they may stop her chemo.
Any advice or help is so much appreciated.
Hi Amber I haven’t had chemo myself, so I can’t reply either personal experience, but I do know that when my sister had chemo for breast cancer she became very breathless. She was told that this is because the chemo, whilst stripping all the nasty cancer cells away, also strips the good blood vessels, so it can effect your red blood vessels that carry the oxygen around the body.
It is important that mum reports any side effects or concerns to her chemo team. She would have been given a phone number to contact them. Don’t worry about bothering them with any concerns, that is what they are there for, these side effects could be easily sorted. Having some side effects will not necessarily mean the chemo will stop, but the dosage could be reduced if mum is struggling too much.
Let us know how she gets on.
