Elderly mum with ovarian cancer

Dear petite blod

i am sorry to hear your news, if as suspected she is diagnosed with ovarian cancer and given her advancing years it’s possible she may not be offered active treatment but palliative treatment instead, but that is not a given as these things are decided more by the fragility of the patient than age so don’t give up hope at this early stage. In the meantime it’s important to build up the best support network you can for yourself and your mum and dad. There is your local maggies centre, carers uk who have a helpline, your local district nurse and a community Macmillan nurse if palliative care becomes the only option. All these things can be accessed via your general practitioner and of course there are many knowledgeable people here in the community who will be able to support whatever the end result of your mother’s diagnosis and prognosis. As your husband and you have already ridden the rollercoaster of cancer treatment and live with the possibility of a reoccurrence you don’t need me to tell you that getting support for you both is important as this will be raising difficult memories for you both, and the better you are coping the more able you will be to support your parents.

Thank you - I’m more or less resigned to the diagnosis. Her GP is very sure and Tuesday is really just confirmation of grade etc. She’s usually very strong - had 2 knee replacements in the last 2 years and sailed through both and she’s more like a 75 year old as a rule, but her health is poor currently- chronic diarrhoea and lack of appetite has taken its toll. Anyway,thank you for your kind words. I had a lot of support from the Macmillan Kidney Cancer group so I’m grateful now for this group x