Hi all, I found out today that my mum has incurable lung cancer. Obviously im heartbroken and completely devastated.
She has lung adenocarcinoma which has spread to her lymph nodes, a bone in her back and in 2 places of her pelvis.
The plan is radiotherapy and immunotherapy. She's otherwise in good health appart from mild COPD. And she plans to stay active and eat well.
Im absolutely terrified that she wont see my son grow up and just looking for some hope that she might last longer than 2 years. Is there anything i can do that can help prolong her life
welcome to the group, but I am so sorry to hear this news about your mum. I know how terrifying this must be for you. I have been on both sides, I cared for my mum who was diagnosed with ovarian, and I am now a mum with lung sarcoma myself. I was petrified when I heard I had lung cancer, because I had always thought that once it was in your lungs, that was it. But lung cancer treatment has come such a long way in recent years, and lots of people now are living much longer lives with stage 4 incurable than ever before. The best thing you and your mum can do right now, is not google her condition. Google is very outdated, and only gives you the worst case scenario, stick to the information that you hear from real people here in the MacMillan community, or the Roy castle lung cancer foundation. I myself have been stage 4 since 2014. If you click on my profile picture it will take you to me profile page where you can read my story.
Your mum is at the worst stage of the journey at the moment, the time where you have just found out this horrendous news, but you are waiting for treatment to start. But the good news is she is going to have treatment! I guess the radiotherapy will be for the bone meta. Radiation will make her very tired, but it really is an easy and painless process. For the patient, it is very much like having an x-ray and is over in minutes. The more you have, the more the radiation builds up in the body, so she may feel more tired as it goes along, but radiation for me, saved my life.
Immunotherapy is the game changer in cancer treatment. Not everyone can have it, it depends on what type of lung cancer you have, but I always feel happy when I read that someone has been offered immunotherapy. I have been on this site a very long time, a time before immunotherapy existed, and I have watched from the beginning when people were offered it as a trial, to now when it is offered as a first line drug. People who were given months to live at diagnosis, who have had immunotherapy, and are living good lives now 5 years and more later.
Of course everyone reacts differently to treatment, and you have asked what you can do to help her. There will be days where she may not feel like eating. It is important that she keeps her fluids up, and try to encourage her to eat nutritious food. Also try to keep moving, she may not feel like it, but short walks in fresh air will do her good. Emotionally is may be hard for you both, and if mum is struggling and feels she needs some extra support, there is a buddy service that MacMillan offers to help her through these early weeks. If you call the support line on 0808 808 00 00 and speak to one of the advisors, they can arrange this for mum for you.
You also need to take care of yourself whilst supporting mum with this. This group is great for support and there is also the Supporting someone with incurable cancer forum which you can join. Also look to see if you have a maggies centre near to you, as they are great places to drop in for a chat.
I hope everything goes smoothly with mums treatment, hopefully she doesn’t have long before it starts, it always seems to feel easier once the first session is out the way.
